Dagonet
by rhiannonstorm
Summary: Dagonet survives the Saxons arrows, and meets a woman who will change his world even more than it already is. Fluffy stuff. The M rating is for future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Escape From Death "

Dagonet woke up greeted by feverishness he wouldn't even have thought was possible. Despite many hard wounds during his years of service to Rome, never before had he wished that the wounds had accomplished what they were meant to.

Aside from a horrible fever that scorched him, his large frame roared in pain with every breath, and heart beat from his wounds. He fought his fevered mind, struggling to draw up memories of what had happened.

_Marius_...he certainly remembered that lunatic easily enough. Just the thought of that evil Roman bastard made his fist involuntarily clench into a tight fist. Something cold touched his forehead startling him. He jerked his face toward whatever it was touching him.

"Dagonet? Dagonet, are you with me?', asked a woman's voice that spoke softly, but with authority.

Dag looked on her, her whiskey colored eyes locked with his. He could almost remember...she seemed familiar somehow...

Suddenly in a flurry, his mind began throwing forth questions for her. As Dag opened his mouth to ask who she was, where he was, where his companions were, to his total dismay, and irritation, only a croak issued forth.

Reaching quickly beside her, his unknown nurse poured a goblet of water for him, and sat down beside him on the bed. Facing Dag, and with one arm behind him, she managed to use the force of her own weight to lift him up far enough so that he wouldn't gag as she brought the cool water to his parched lips. She tipped the goblet just enough to accommodate his tentative sips. Realizing his thirst, Dag moved one hand weakly to hers in an attempt to drink more deeply.

"Easy, easy...", the woman crooned softly. "If you overdo it you will make yourself ill from it."

Despite the agony that gripped him, Dagonet managed something of a smile. Ill? Was she joking?

Noting the wry smile on his lips the woman smirked a little in return thinking of what that had to sound like to the ears of one so wounded. She couldn't begin to imagine his pain.

Dagonet watched the woman through glazed eyes as she set the goblet aside, and took up her basin and rags once more before returning to him on the bed.

"Rest.", she murmured softly, as she began to bathe the burning flesh of his face, neck, arms, and chest. Had he been perhaps a little less ill than he was, he would have noticed the deep worry lining her young face. Before she ever finished, sleep mercifully stepped in.

Rhiannon had nursed Dagonet for nearly two weeks. Those two weeks easily made up the most frightening time of her life.

Tiredly, she moved her chair to the side of Dagonet's bed, and leaned her torso over the edge of it, laying her head down. She had labored long today fighting his fever as best she could, and at least for now had succeeded. She knew she should be grinding herbs for the salves to be reapplied to his wounds, but sleep had been too long denied. With a final, longing look at the man in the bed, she laid her head back down.

When Dagonet next woke, he knew his fever was certainly down. The pain was only a little less than it had been, but he was thankful for it. Much to his body's complaint he dragged a great, deep breath into his lungs. As he shakily exhaled, he began to take note of his surroundings. With surprise he realized he was in his bed chamber at Hadrians wall. _What had happened?_

This time the memories came more willingly. Dag tensed as he remembered the battle on the lake. He had thought- no, he had known that he would die when he ran out toward the Saxon forces. He remembered the feeling of arrows piercing his body. He thought he had heard Bors screaming but he wasn't sure because the blood rushing in his ears had drowned out everything. With all of his warriors might he swung his ax into the lakes icy surface as his life ebbed surely away. There was a last, thundering blow when he knew he had saved his friends and then cold, darkness. He had given all he could to save his brothers, but _had _he saved them?

While these thoughts, and questions formed in Dagonet's clearing mind, he felt something stir by his hand. Casting his eyes quickly toward the source of movement, he was once more surprised.

The woman who he vaguely recalled from his previous waking was there. She was sitting in a chair next to his bed, but her upper body was slumped over next to him, hear arms cushioning her head in sleep. Even though she appeared to be in a sound sleep, she was stirring a little. She was nestling the top of her head into the back of his hand..

With her face toward him, Dagonet took full advantage to study her features that seemed somehow familiar. A memory flashed in his head. A woman in a dark cloak...even the heaviness of the fabric couldn't totally conceal how voluptuous her body was...from the village they had evacuated. He had only seen her face once. She had watched him. He had felt her eyes on him often and wondered at it. He did allow that it was probably nothing, till Tristan made it a point to tell him he was being watched. He had immediately looked up at her from where he stooped making a bed for he and Lucan at the campsite. She was obviously startled when their eyes had met, but she did not lower her gaze.

Now as he could examine her more closely, he admired what he saw. Her skin was fair; her face was a softly rounded oval; rose-pink lips formed a small mouth; her nose lent strength to her face as did the set of her chin; long lashes lay on her cheeks as she slumbered. Her hair amazed him. It fell unrestrained to her waist in a wild tangle of brown and blonde curls. Gods! She looked sweet. His hand itched to touch those curls. As he began to carefully draw his hand away from her to indulge in that impulse, his door opened.

He was greeted by the welcome sight of Arthur, Gawain, and Galahad stepping into his room. They all smiled at him, their relief obvious. Arthur spoke first as they gathered near his bed, "At last you have returned to us."

Dagonet grinned painfully at him before he realized that aside from Arthur no one would meet his gaze now. The expressions on Galahad and Gawains faces...something was terribly wrong. He also realized now what his exhaustion had prevented him from seeing when they had first entered...all three men were badly bruised and battered. Had they still fought the Saxons after all? Where were Bors, Tristan, and Lancelot? Dagonet's mind answered the last question for him. Dead. He knew. Still, he had to hear it.

Dagonet tried roughly to sit up while attempting to ask what everyone seemed determined to keep secret. Pain gripped him and nothing but that same croak issued from his parched throat.

In his attempt to jerk himself upright, he had wakened his sleeping nurse. Everyone seemed to rush toward him at once. Gawain caught Dagonets torso in his arms, and held him firmly as Arthur unnecessarily asked the woman for water.

"Rhiannon, water, now.", Arthur ordered hurriedly.

Rhiannon swiftly rose, and turned to the nearby table and poured water into a goblet for him again. Quickly sitting by Dag on the bed, she held the rim of the goblet to his lips while Gawain continued to support him. Dagonet saw her-_Rhiannon_, Arthur had called her-cast a quick encouraging look at Gawain, before she turned her gaze to Dagonet. As he drank the cool liquid he lifted his eyes to hers. Those honey colored eyes watched him with...sympathy. Then he knew. Despite his suicidal effort at the lake, his brothers were dead.

As Dagonet closed his eyes in acceptance, a large form filled his doorway, and then strode purposefully across the floor.

"Dag!", Bors bellowed at his best friend. "About bloody time you woke up!"

Gawain was lying Dagonet back down as Bors came to the edge of the bed and began to grab Dag in a bear hug. Rhiannon intercepted. With a sudden movement she threw herself almost completely on top of Dagonet trying to shield him from his friends display of affection.

"No Bors! You mustn't! His wounds might yet reopen!", Rhiannon screeched as she maintained trying to shield Dagonet's body with her own. If Dag had looked at Arthur, Galahad, and Gawain he would have seen how amused they were by the situation. His eyes however were elsewhere.

Dag was looking at the woman who was on top of him. She was supporting most of her weight with her arms to keep herself above him, but even so her breasts still pressed into him softly. Even that small pressure was painful to him, yet he still found himself enjoying it.

What he really found himself admiring however was that she was nearly nose-to-nose with Bors who still hovered over him from the opposite side of the bed. Bors could intimidate any man, and yet this woman refused to back down. She steadily held Bors' gaze as he glared at her. In that moment Rhiannon made Dagonet think of Tristan... how he too kept his face passive in a challenge.

"Woman, if it hadn't been for you savin' 'im I'd have you over my knee.", Bors growled at her with apparent merriment in his eyes.

Rhiannon grinned at the bear of a man, and chuckled at his threat. "No you wouldn't. I daresay Vanora would avenge me if you did."

As the other three men standing behind Bors began to laugh at him, he looked from them to Dagonet, and finally back to Rhiannon.

"I ain't afraid of any woman...but you should keep an eye on this one.", Bors muttered good naturedly pointing at her. He and Rhiannon smiled at each other. Bors backed off to stand with his long-time companions.

Rhiannon began to ease off of Dagonet, her hair tickling his chest and abdomen as she moved away. Dag watched her and wished there was some good reason for her to remain as she had been. Her weight that had rested on him had hurt, but was still welcomed. She had been soft and warm. Besides that, what man didn't want a pretty woman lying atop of them.

Noticing that everyone had grown silent again, Dag waited for someone to say something, anything. Seconds passed by uncomfortably.

Dag couldn't stand it any longer. "What has happened?" , he asked hoarsely looking to each of them. Rhiannon wouldn't look at him now. Something about the sleeve of her dress seemed to have her rapt attention.

Rhiannon saw Arthur step forward to tell him, and her heart ached for Dagonet. She had seen what a gentle man he was first-hand, warrior or not. Here at Hadrians Wall she had heard only wonderful stories and descriptions of the large man she was tending. He was a healer, somewhat quiet, and obviously a brave and loyal man. Everyone admired him. Particularly Bors. Bors had made it clear that if she could not use her skills to successfully save his friend, she would answer to him. As he had angrily stomped away from her, Galahad stepped forward just encouraging her to do what she could. No one expected Dag to live. Not even Bors, but he needed someone to lay his pain on, so he would certainly blame her if Dagonet did not survive.

He had survived though, and now he wanted answers about those who had not. Rhiannon reached to him from her chair and grasped his hand in hers, rubbing his scarred knuckles with the pad of her thumb. She wanted so badly to transfer her caring to him to cushion him, but knew how foolish that thought was.

Dagonet turned to Rhiannon again when he felt her take his hand in hers, and saw once more the deep sympathy in her averted eyes. If that didn't totally tell him what he wanted to know, Arthur did.

"Lancelot and Tristan were lost to us as we fought the Saxons." Arthur's voice had broken over the knights names though he still held himself tall.

"I failed you then.", Dagonet whispered brokenly, despair filling him.

"No", Galahad told him, stepping forward. You did not fail us. We managed to escape what would have been our deaths at the lake because you nearly died. We wouldn't leave you there even had you been dead."

In a stoic effort to control his emotions, Dagonet was squeezing Rhiannon's hand to steady himself. He felt her move closer to him and he was thankful for her.

Gawain began to speak. "The night before we were to leave this place and journey home, the Saxons marched on us, and made camp just outside the wall. We all chose to stay and fight. The Woads were with us. Even though we prevailed..." Gawain's voice was losing power, so Arthur again took up the tale.

"It was the bloodiest battle any of us had ever witnessed before. Tristan and Lancelot fought valiantly and died with honor."

"Where was I?" Dagonet asked with agony in his voice.

"You were full of holes from arrows and about to die is where you were!", Bors roared out angrily. "If you ever do anythin' so damned stupid again, I'll kill ya' myself!"

"You were here.", Arthur told him, ignoring Bors outburst. With a nod of his head, Arthur pointed attention to Rhiannon. "Rhiannon wouldn't let those evacuating take you. She said that moving you anymore than we already had would certainly kill you. The only chance you had was to stay here."

Gawain looked admiringly at the young woman before he added, "She barricaded herself in with you. She's been so devoted to your care that even Bors had no doubt about leaving you with her."

Dag looked at her then, and saw something he had not while she had rested. She was truly exhausted. Worry, and lack of sleep were grooved into her face. Her eyes were still alert, but the lids were pinched and red. Her hair looked as though she had run her fingers through it repeatedly in distraction.

"She also would allow no one else to care for you. She has cared for you going on a fortnight singlehandedly.", Gawain finished.

Galahad grinned at Dagonet. "Bors is right. She _is_ stubborn. You will have your hands full with this one." Galahad only laughed at the glare that Rhiannon was gracing him with.

**_This is my very first fanfic so please be tactful with your reviews, but please REVIEW!Thanks so much for reading this._**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Finding Peace"

"Lucan will be relieved to see you.", Rhiannon told Dagonet..

Once Arthur and his knights had departed, Rhiannon had released Dagonet's hand to move to the fireplace. Now, she deliberately stood with her back to him as she continued to speak.

"Perhaps relieved is not the best word for it...", she mused with a small tired grin. "I think ecstatic would be nearer the truth of the matter."

Dagonet watched her back as she spoke. Rhiannon wasn't a tall woman, but even now in all her exhaustion, she held herself proudly and to her full height. The firelight glowed through her hair, and outlined her darkly in the ever-dimming stone chamber.

He admired how her dark green gown draped over her curvaceous form. She was not in any sense a petite woman. Perhaps she was a bit short in stature, but her body was lush and sturdily built. Dag found her body endlessly alluring even as he was still so hellishly weak, and hurting. It made him smile a little that even in his current condition he could care about such things.

"Where is the boy?", He asked with a rasp.

Rhiannon turned at the sound of his hoarse voice, and walking to the table by the bed, grasped the still half full goblet of water.

"Arthur has given him a place here, and Bors' and Vanora's children keep him company.", Rhiannon informed him.

She had yet to look at him. As Rhiannon positioned herself by him on the bed, she realized with dismay that she was going to have to. She was simply too tired to deal with everything that was going through her head and her heart though.

She wasn't some green girl after all, her mind scolded... Alright, maybe I am a bit inexperienced with men, she conceded. Still, her parents, unlike so many, had explained to her about men and women. When she was fifteen, she'd had her first and only personal experience with a man, and it had left her terrified for a time.

She was a mix of a Roman father, and a British mother. As a result she was snubbed by many despite being upper middle class, and an uncle who sat on the senate. Also her name clearly was not a Roman name. A son of one of the senators named Tiberian felt that a mongrel such as herself should welcome any and all attention. She shuddered as she recalled that near rape, and quickly pulled her mind from those remembrances.

Dagonet had seen her eyes go somewhere far away, and saw her tremble. Just that quickly she was back with him. She seemed to pause a moment before looking at him. Suddenly, her eyes snapped to his.

"Here, drink...but slowly.", she admonished tilting the goblet rim once more to his lips.

Rhiannon found herself helplessly staring at his mouth. The water was making his lips glisten with moisture. She could hardly believe that a man who was simply drinking water could be so powerfully seductive.

She quickly realized that Dagonet eyes were still on her. Her face flamed as she forcefully yanked her gaze from his mouth, and back to his eyes. Had he seen? Did he have any idea what she was thinking? His darkened eyes gave nothing away. How she could be twenty-five summers and be acting like such a besotted fool was beyond her. She pulled the water away slowly.

"More?", Rhiannon asked trying to hold her gaze with his steady.

Dagonet only shook his head still watching her. He knew what he had seen in her eyes only a moment before. Rhiannon had looked at him so hungrily he had nearly choked. He couldn't recall when any woman had looked at him with that kind of intensity. The women at the tavern were just doing their job after all, and he was hardly their favorite. Lancelot was always the one that _all_ women sought out. _Lancelot_...reality crashed through his thoughts.

Rhiannon saw the loss in Dagonet eyes before he had time to look away. She sat the water back on the table blindly. She wanted to take his face in her hands and...and what? Was she honestly thinking about kissing a man she really didn't know? Yes she was. She wanted desperately to love his pain away**_. Love! _**Her mind yelled at her. Had she honestly convinced herself that she was in love with him as she watched over him the last weeks? She wasn't sure she'd had to convince herself of anything. This was insane though. The man had been unconscious most of the time!

Rhiannon had always thought herself to be level-headed, and sensible. This proved she was as big a fool as she had secretly feared.

"I've got to get some sleep.", She mumbled ruefully. She put a tired hand over her face.

She heard the door open. She took a big breath, and wiped hard at her eyes before seeing who it was. Forcing her eyes open she looked up to see Guinevere entering the room with a woman that Rhiannon did not recognize behind her. Both women carried food, and odd sized bundles as well.

Rhiannon smiled as she rose and went to the drum table across the room to clear her mess off of it. It was littered with her soapstone mortar and pestle, various pouches of herbs, a knife, a metal container about three-quarters full of aloe. Her jar of salve was there as well though nearly empty. All of this was swept up and shoved into the deep windowsill nearby.

"Rhiannon, you look very nearly as faint as your patient." Guinevere told her in a somewhat amused tone, as she helped get the table to the side of the bed.

Rhiannon could only smile. The smell of the good food steaming up to her only made her feel like a ravenous bear. A _grumpy_ ravenous bear.

"Are you alright?", Guinevere asked as she finished getting the food on her tray all settled. Her eyes went back to the healers face noting the obvious lack of rest. She permitted no one else to help her care for Dagonet though. Her eyes had moved from pinched to blood-shot

The unknown woman was clattering around with her tray of food, distracting Rhiannon a moment. Gods! Her head was heavy.

"I am only tired My Lady." Rhiannon answered as she motioned to Dagonet "As you can see though, My Lord Knight has come safely through the worst part of his recovery, so now I may take rest without fear."

Guinevere smiled with knowing and mischief, making Rhiannon both smile and roll her eyes. The unknown woman again caught her eye as she began lighting the candles in the room.

"Oh, this is Elspeth, Rhiannon. She works in the laundry part of the time, and in the kitchen as well.", Guinevere explained.

"Well met.", Rhiannon told this new acquaintance with a nod.

Elspeth nodded in return with only a ghost of a smile.

"I tended your gowns as best I could, but some are ruined with blood. Most actually." Elspeth's last sentence was a hesitant one. She knew expensive fabric when she saw it, and this woman was from Rome. Who knew what she might do? Elspeth indicated that the largest bundle was clean laundry.

"No matter.", Rhiannon told the woman. "Please think nothing of it. When I can, I will see a seamstress about new gowns...something more practical than those I brought with me might be best." She finished with a smile to the woman. She was not so foolish as to not know why Elspeth did not like her.

Guinevere saw hunger and exhaustion warring in new friends face as Rhiannon turned back to the food. She had grown a bit peaked.

"The other things we brought are the new bandages and the herbs you asked for. There are also a few things just for you in there.", Guinevere told her with a warm smile. "Now we will leave you both, and both of you please eat for Goddesses sake." Guinevere looked from Rhiannon to Dag, and with a nod to him walked out the door with Elspeth in tow.

The large knight certainly had lost weight. Between that and loss of blood, he looked truly alarming, but he was alive. Somehow, Rhiannon had kept him alive when all others would have left him for dead.

Guinevere smiled to herself as she parted ways with the aged Elspeth to go to her own love.

Dagonet watched the goings-ons of the women curiously. It gave him another unimpeded opportunity to study the woman who had so obviously devoted herself completely to him. If what he gathered was true she must have quite a talent for healing. She seemed Roman, but not exactly. There was something else. Perhaps she was like Arthur, and yet her name didn't fit Rome. Perhaps, she had been born here. He found it unlikely. Still, she didn't act like a Roman, flaunting her superiority like some might fly a pennant.

His stomach clenched as the scent of the food grew stronger. Would these women never cease talking?

Dagonet found himself distracted by a sparse pallet on the floor. He had noticed it when the drum table was moved to the bed. It was near the fire, but still...surely whatever rest she had been taking hadn't been upon the cold stones?

Finally, he noticed with relief that Guinevere and the old servant woman were taking their leave. Rhiannon came to sit by him on the bed once more.

"You will need to sit up. Do you think you will be alright if I prop you up with pillows?"She asked softly.

"Yes, I believe so.", Dag replied touching her hand that unconsciously rested on his belly.

Rhiannon sucked in her breath, and her eyes were enormous at his touch. Dagonet nearly laughed aloud. He noted that she did not try to remove her hand however. She simply stared at him a moment before continuing.

"We have to be mindful of your wounds. If it hurts too much you **_must_** tell me."

Dagonet nodded in response. He was honestly touched that she was so concerned.

Gently leaning herself down on him, Rhiannon wriggled her arms around him, one at his waist, the other higher at his chest. Still, she managed to keep her weight off of him even pressed into him as she was. Dagonet was entranced. Her full breasts were flattened against his hard chest, her mass of wild curls blanketing part of his chest and side. Her face would have been in his bed, but she had turned her head to breath, and so that he could hear her speak. Her breath was hot on the knights neck. It was swiftly undoing him. He wrapped his arms around her.

Rhiannon tightened her arms more. She was loath to put more pressure on him, but she had to get him upright. She couldn't help but savor how he felt in her arms though, and how delicious it was to feel his arms wrapped around her. She was fighting for any piece of her sanity she could grasp before she shamed herself. She had to keep her mind on what she was doing. With her mouth unintentionally grazing his neck, she spoke again.

"As I sit up, I need you to help me as much as you are able." Rhiannon tried to say with strength, but it ended in a whisper. The scent of him was flooding her senses. She had been with him for weeks but never as close as she was now. She could almost taste him. All she had to do was open her mouth...

She grasped him then, even tighter than before, and began to move upward with him, thanking the Gods for granting her the will she so badly needed.

Dagonet loosened one arm to push himself using the bed as leverage. A groan broke through his determined mouth. He could feel the wounds pulling a bit, but thankfully not opening. He was more sore than he could remember ever having been before.

Rhiannon heard him moan, but they had to keep momentum. She didn't _think_ his wounds would split..."Hold onto me big man.", She murmured as she steadily kept moving.

Painfully, Dag was finally upright. _He hated himself_. He had grown painfully hard during all of this. He was incredulous at himself, and embarrassed. Somehow this woman was both soft and firm all at once, her arms were around him crushing herself into him, and her mouth on his neck had been more than he could take. He did not want to release her because then she would see how badly he wanted her. The proof was plain to see under the sheet that covered him. He might as well be naked for all the good that pitiful covering was doing. He didn't want to do this in front of this woman, at least not like this. What would she think of him? She deserved more consideration than this from him.

Meanwhile, Rhiannon was busy quickly shoving pillows and cushions behind him with one hand, while still holding him firmly with the other arm. That done, she put her arm back around him, and leaned into him gently to ease him into the soft prop behind him.

Rhiannon slackened her hold on him to face him "Are you alright?" She asked with genuine concern, as well as a triumphant smile for their success.

"I am fine milady", Dagonet answered trying not to stammer. Their gazes locked. Her eyes were killing him. The combination of brown and gold was bewitching. Gods! How he wanted her! He was miserable.

Someone cleared their throat by the door making them both jump. There, looking completely smug and amused, stood Gawain.

Rhiannon jumped up to busy herself with Dagonet's food, wondering how she didn't hear the door. Broth...good. He wouldn't be able to stomach anything more than that for now. She ladled some into a smaller bowl, making sure to keep her flushed face away from Gawain at all costs. She had come to admire and love Gawain dearly, as she had nearly everyone here, but she found his teasing merciless, and unbearable. He was also usually right on target.

"I am sorry I interrupted you. I hardly thought that either of you would be up to such antics this early on.", Gawain taunted noticing Dagonet's obvious physical discomfiture, as well as the emotional. Dags face was pleading with him.

Gawain was having fun, but he couldn't be so cruel. Not today anyway. Dagonet had returned from the dead. He quietly went to the end of the bed to grasp the heavy, thick, fur robe and spread it over the bed. Problem solved, dignity rescued. He laughed aloud at his friends look of relief. So, he cared what this woman thought of him? He couldn't blame the man. He would willingly have tried to win her over himself, but from the start she only seemed to see Dag. After all that happened, he knew she was in love with his brother, and he would not interfere with that. She was fiercely loyal, and Dagonet could certainly wish for nothing more than all this woman possessed.

"I had only come to say goodnight before I go to the tavern. You have been promised visits upon the morrow from Arthur, Galahad, and Bors. I will bring Lucan to you as well. The boy can hardly sit still knowing that you are awake now."

Dagonet nodded with a smile in response. Gawain had noticed that Rhiannon was deliberately keeping her back to him, attempting to appear busy fidgeting with their food.

He just smiled to himself. "Goodnight to you as well Lady Healer."

Rhiannon turned to smile warmly at him. Gawain returned the smile before adding on his way through the door, "You might consider a bath milady. If you look like hell, I'd hate to know what you smell like." Before she even had time to open her mouth, the door was shut. She could hear Gawain's laughter echoing in the outside passage. Gods only knew what he was going to tell everyone at the tavern. She looked to Dagonet in surprise. He was laughing as well, but softer than Gawain. He was also holding his side in pain.

"Serves you right.", Rhiannon told him with a smile, as she returned to the bed with a bowl of broth. She noted briefly that Gawain must have covered Dag up with the gigantic fur robe. She sank into it with a sigh.

Rhiannon lifted the bowl up to Dag. "You must drink as much of this as you can. I am made to understand that you are a healer as well, so you know that this is vital."

"I feel starved.", Dag told her truthfully.

'Then we will solve that." Rhiannon replied, and held the bowl to his lips.

This time as he drank, his mouth was mercifully obscured from her sight by the bowl.

Dag drank all that he could, but it was not much. He added one more drink for good measure, but he knew any more and he would be sick. He raised his hand to push the bowl away.

"I can eat no more.", he told her huskily, once again drawn to those beautiful eyes.

"I am glad you could eat what you did. How do you feel?"

"I am very tired milady.", Dag responded, full now, but certainly weary.

"I need to change your bandages, and please, I have no need of a title. Call me Rhiannon."

"Eat first.", Dagonet instructed before she could rise.

"It's alright, that can wait.", she told him feigning lightness.

"No,**_ Rhiannon_**, it cannot." One arm snaked around her waist and held her fast. "You must eat as well." When she continued to show some signs of resisting, his voice grew even more stern. "Woman you must, and you will." His eyes bored into hers telling her plainly he would brook no argument. She looked at him a moment more.

"Very well then." She resignedly began spooning some of the heartier soup on the table into her mouth. It felt heavenly to eat. In her vigil over Dagonet she could hardly stand to eat out of the feverish worry she had developed. It had become life or death to _her_ whether or not he lived. She had stayed here even in the battle with the Saxons. Had there been some other outcome than victory...The tired woman shoved those evil thoughts away from her.

Before she knew it, she was scraping the bottom of the bowl, and had somehow eaten much of the bread on the trays. Dag heard her sigh of contentment, and smiled.

Rhiannon felt his hand on her hip as he relaxed his hold on her, and she turned to be greeted by his smiling face. He was obviously pleased with her, and truth be told, he was tickled by the gusto with which she nourished herself. Now for the rest of his argument.

"Now you may tend to me if you must, although I believe whole-heartedly that the bandages could be let go till tomorrow." He could tell that she was about to protest. "I am a healer too remember? My wounds have closed, and while I realize they are still new enough to warrant bandages, it can wait."

Rhiannon's full stomach was interfering with her. She had become increasingly drowsy from eating so much, and was struggling for a counter-argument. She did admit that in her fastidiousness, her habit was to change his bandages frequently. She had changed them last only this morning.

"Perhaps it _can_ wait.", She conceded.

Using what strength he could, and gritting his teeth, Dagonet dragged Rhiannon backward until he had her in the crook of his arm.

Nestled against Dag's side, Rhiannon closed her eyes. This was such comfort. The fur under her was soft, and Elspeth had stoked the fire at some point in her visit, and it roared chasing the chill to the corners of the bed chamber. Most important of all she was being cradled by Dag, and that warmth alone would have kept her. She vaguely thought about the scandal of sleeping in this man's bed, and just didn't care. She was far too tired to be concerned with it. "Besides,", she thought to herself, "I have never been conventional."

Rhiannon was just falling over the edge of slumber when she felt Dags head lower to the top of hers.

"Thank you.", Dagonet mumbled gently against her hair as he felt her snuggle closer.

"My pleasure.", Rhiannon whispered with a smile, her eyes still closed. Dag felt her body relax as sleep took her.

If he had his way this woman who he owed so much to, and who endlessly intrigued him, would never sleep on the floor again. The thought pained him as he looked over once more to her rough, pitiful pallet. There were so many things he had wanted to ask her today, but let it go. They both needed rest, and she had looked so much more haggard as the evening progressed, that he had determined to wait at least till the morrow.

Dagonet looked down into Rhiannon's face. Her reddened eyes were shut, and her face was now free from worry. He kissed the top of her head gently, and slipped off into his own healing sleep, with her soft, warm weight beside him. In his dreamless slumber, his arm tightened possessively around her.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"**Pleasant and Rude Awakenings**"

Dagonet woke up in a haze of warmth and comfort. He smiled to himself as he felt the woman wrapped around him. _Wrapped around him?_ His smile grew larger. He could think of no better way to start a day than this.

He lazily opened his eyes to look at Rhiannon's sleep-smoothed face, her body totally relaxed, her mind lost in peaceful slumber.

Sometime in the night, she had climbed under the heavy robe. It struck him that she had managed to do so without waking him. His wounds, and sickness had certainly taken their toll he mused. Last night was the first un-fevered sleep he had enjoyed in sometime. He was truly healing now.

He knew the room had grown chilly throughout the night as the fire had died. Gods knew the woman had probably been too exhausted to stoke the fire, and so had opted to spend the night in the warmth of his bed. He wondered how she might feel about this when she woke up, considering that this was far from the most suitable place for her to spend the night. He was pleased that she was snuggled into him however.

Indeed, she had molded herself to him, he noted with rising pleasure. His arm was still holding her to him, her face pillowed between his shoulder and chest. One of her arms had snaked behind his that cradled her, her other arm had found its way across his broad chest. One leg was lying over his, the other was contoured along the side of him. Her soft, full breasts pushed against his side. He felt himself growing hard for her as he had the night before.

He felt blissful in his comfort, even as sore as he was. He was in the act of pressing Rhiannon even nearer, when the bare skin of her thigh shifted over his leg. Dagonet jolted in surprise. He had thought that at least the sheet still separated their bodies till she had moved,_ and what of her dress? _Surely she had not unclothed herself? He rubbed a tentative hand over her waist and back, but felt the material of her gown. A bit confused, he continued his exploration somewhat lower, and encountered the material of her gown bunched at her hips. He made the mistake of dropping his hand to the soft skin of her hip and just that quickly his body raged for her. He had been hard before, but this was merciless. His mind conjured images of her under him, wet and opened to him... her lust darkened eyes reflecting his face as he pushed inside her tight body... loving her till neither one could take anymore.

_Love?_

He swiftly raised his eyes to the ceiling, and stared at the tiles swallowing hard. Everything was surreal to him. He had been bombarded by news of death, Saxons, Woads, Romans...and then there was this woman maddening him. He knew next to nothing about her, yet here he was tangled with her in _his_ bed. Dagonet never brought women to his chamber, but rather took his needs to the beds at the back of the tavern.

Rhiannon wasn't here borne out of that particular need though, and she was certainly not a whore to be bedded in a tavern. She overwhelmed him by her entire presence, and he had sensed her desire for him though that continued to surprise him. _Why me? _He marveled.

He was often quiet, and did not stand out as the other knights in appearance. He was rougher, and older than all but Bors. It seemed to good to be true.

Tenderness had somehow already sprung up between them, and she was utterly artless. He did not doubt that she genuinely cared for him. She had to for all that she had gone through for him. She appealed to his heart as no other had, and he admitted that it was not only her body he wanted, but all of her. She was beguiling to him.

Dagonet smiled, and painfully stretched a little. He couldn't help but wonder if she realized, on a practical level, the naivete of seeking sleep in a naked mans bed with her skirts bunched nearly to her waist. With her legs as they were, he could feel...Oh dear Gods! He thought helplessly. He absolutely could not think of that part of her, and yet it could not be helped. With her thighs parted as they were, she was hot and moist against him. His eyes roamed over the ceiling desperately, as his tongue wetted his dried lips. The worst of it was that he knew he had put himself in this predicament, but what was he to do? He could not bear the idea of her sleeping on the floor, particularly after all she had done for him. _She was going to drive him mad. _It was as simple as that. He could see it now. Galahad, and Bors had _warned_ him. His need for her was hellish, and growing worse by the second. He would never force any woman, but he could not allow her to stay in his bed again. It was simply not safe for her virtue. _I am only a man_, he thought.

He could hardly believe that his need for her body had turned him so suddenly irrational. This was not like him at all. He determined to be content as they were; he would not question that. Rhiannon was intimately wound about him as a lover would be, her gentle face turned to him in total, trusting sleep. His chamber was becoming lighter by the moment. He closed his eyes and wished the sun would stop in its path. Her body was torturing him.

He let his mind wander again for the sake of his sanity. _Who is this woman?_ He asked himself for what seemed like the hundredth time. Her dress was made of a fabric to fine for any of the villagers. The old laundress Elspeth had vocalized that point only the night before. She _had_ to be Roman, yet she did not act as Romans were wont, her attitude was one of unrestraint, caring... and her name...decidedly not a Roman name. Still, if she were a woman of Marius' household as here clothing attested, she would have to be Roman. Surely he would not have taken in a Britain, and all Britains were Woads. Dagonet raised a hand to his head that he was afraid would be aching along with the rest of him soon. He had so many questions that he needed to ask her when she woke, for his own piece of mind.

He felt Rhiannon stir again, and he lowered his gaze to her. He smiled at the beautiful mess of curls that was framing her face. He felt an urge to kiss her smooth forehead, but found he couldn't bend low enough from his pillows without hurting himself. Dag reasoned that he would likely only succeed in waking Rhiannon should he make some sound in discomfort, and hewas not quite ready to part with her softness, and warmth.

He wondered with some amusement what she might do if she woke to find him trying to kiss her? His mischievous smile only grew as his thoughts took a more wicked turn. What might she do if she awoke to find him taking her up on her unintended invitation, his demanding body on hers, pressing her into his bed? His aching, weak body was making him hate the Saxons more and more. Still, had he been physically able to do such a thing to her, he would not. It was not who he was. He had just breathed out a sigh of sufferance, when a hard rapping was heard on his door.

Rhiannon jolted awake. _Knocking..._Rhiannon looked up to Dagonet's face to find his steady, stern gaze looking back. A voice called to her...

"Rhiannon, we must speak at once."It was Arthur's voice on the other side of the heavy door.

Dagonet frowned. What reason would Arthur have for coming here at dawn? It did not bode well.

Rhiannon extricated herself quickly from the large warrior, but with a great deal of regret. A high, hot blush colored her cheeks as she yanked the skirt of her gown down in her exit from his warm bed. She had realized upon moving that her dress had bunched up in the night around her naked hips, and her embarrassment was immense. She hadn't bothered with under-things, not even a shift lately, and so she had awoken curled around him in a compromising way, with her bare flesh pressed against this man. Gods knew what he must think of her for her behavior. Her mind berated her. _Why had she slept in his bed? _Yet, despite all propriety, when she awoke in his arms, she was not shocked by it. He felt so good against her. His dark eyes upon her had caused something hot and liquid to pool in her stomach. Thinking of lying with him as she had, her most intimate of places damp against him, only amplified the feeling. These stirrings were new to her, and though she feared them a little, she wanted to explore these new sensations. _It is just as well_, she thought dismally. Besides, she knew as Dagonet did that Arthur would not be here for some trivial reason.

She could only hope as she opened the door that there was nothing amiss. That hope was erased as she looked upon the grim faces of Arthur, Bors, and Galahad in the gloomy passageway. "My lady, it is imperative that we speak. May we enter?" Arthur's voice was low, and swift, his face a mask.

"Of course, please..." Rhiannon stepped away, and gestured the men in.

Arthur turned to Bors before taking a step. "See that we are not disturbed." Bors simply grunted a reply as he hefted himself taller. With Bors standing guard, Rhiannon felt certain that no one would even think of looking at that door, let alone touching it. A fleeting smile curved her lips before her feeling of dread began to replace the heat in her belly. The stress from the two men before her was palpable.

Dagonet was simply watching and waiting. Something was wrong. He could gauge the tension in his long-time companions easily. Whatever this was, it was not good at all. He cursed his helplessness. If she was in danger, he needed to protect her. What could he do like this? His anger at himself was multiplying quickly.

Meanwhile, Rhiannon could think of no reason for Arthur and Galahad's presence. If someone was hurt, and her skills were needed, they would have told her at the door. Were someone dead, they would have wanted Dagonet, and not her. Yet here they were, with Bors standing guard. Surely it hadn't come upon them to wonder if she'd had anything to do with the horrendous events at Marius' estate? She knew she could not have committed any offenses here either. She had not left Dagonet's side for weeks. While she had been at Marius' home, she had strove to keep a low profile with a fair amount of success when one considered how small his household was. If she had learned anything at all in her life, it was how to stay under the radar of those who were potentially dangerous. Rome, after all, was full of dangers.

"What is it?" Rhiannon asked, looking to either man for explanation.

Dag saw the curiosity and dread mingling on her face. His own sense of unease heightened.

"The Woads have escorted a Roman senator, Murrelus Volumnius, to Hadrians Wall. They saw his ship and surrounded him, as well as his entourage as soon as they came ashore. The senator requested to see me specifically, and he was promptly delivered. He told me that he came here for no other purpose than to find his niece. He said that she was here as a companion to Marius' wife." Arthur's expression was a knowing one.

"I am the niece of the man you speak of.", Rhiannon confirmed. Dag noted that she had looked stunned ever since she had heard the senators name. How he wished to go to her, and yet here was the truth at last. She was a Roman, and kin to a senator no less. The saying 'sleeping with the enemy' could be no less apt, he thought ruefully. Still...she looked somehow strong and vulnerable all at once, and it pulled at his heart. She stood to her full height that was a good foot under both Arthur and Galahad.

He wanted nothing more than to go to her, and wrap his arms about her, to hold her back to his chest and lend her his presence. It impressed him though that she always held herself so proudly.

Rhiannon had noted that Arthur's face was neutral, while Galahad had turned his troubled face to the floor. She almost dreaded to look back at Dagonet. She was partly Roman, but she was not the enemy of the people here. Surely Dagonet would see that. Besides, she was only part Roman, as was Arthur. She tentatively turned her head to the big man watching her. He was eyeing her carefully, and she tried desperately to discern his thoughts, but his sombre face gave nothing away. Her heart fell. _Would it matter after all? _

"Why did you not speak of this before?", Galahad asked. Her head turned away from the large knight in the bed and back to the one in front of her.

"Sir Knight, I did not speak of it because I did not think it important." Rhiannon saw him raise his eyes to the ceiling as he scoffed at her. She reigned in her aggravation, and patiently continued. "I did not expect that my uncle would ever seek me out. We are family by blood, but not by heart. He has made it clear to me repeatedly that the best place for me to be is where he is not. I have always honored that. I am confounded that he is here. I can think of no purpose for it."

The expression on Galahad's face let her know that something caustic was about to come out of his mouth. She was fond of Galahad, but he was undoubtedly the most temperamental man at this fort. She braced herself for whatever scorn he had to let loose with, but his anger never came. Arthur had touched his arm at the same time that Galahad saw the pointed look he was receiving from Dag. He closed his mouth.

Dagonet could _feel_ the fear coming off of her. Whatever threat this senator caused, he would have to protect her. After all that she had done for him, he could do no less and be her champion if this Roman did in fact bring trouble. Wounds or no wounds, he would not be stopped.

He took in how dissheveled, and rumpled she was. In need of a bath as Gawain had taunted, and a bit on the underfed side, but at least she no longer appeared as if she might faint away from exhaustion. That was truly an improvement. All in all, she was lovely.

"You can think of no reason at all that he would come in search of you?' Dagonet's voice was husky, and even.

Rhiannon turned to him once more, and looked him over. He had shoved the blankets away from his chest, and his healing, but angry wounds, were there for all to see. With a thoughtful sigh, she lowered her eyes and walked to his bedside. With light fingers she traced the skin immediately outside the wound on his chest...the worst he had been given. She raised her eyes to his at his quick intake of breath. "Your bandages?", she questioned softly.

Without breaking eye contact, Dagonet merely motioned to a pile of discarded fabric in the floor. He waited for her to answer his question.

"I cannot." Rhiannon ran absent fingers through her tangled curls.

Dagonet nodded almost imperceptibly. He wanted to tell her all the comforts that were on his tongue, but all he could do was reach for her hand. As he squeezed her hand tightly in his larger one, he damned the fact that she was part Roman. Would this uncle of hers take her away to Rome? _He can try_, Dagonet thought viciously. He was amazed at his own anger, but supposed that he , like Galahad, had simply had enough of the Romans. He shook his head slightly as he realized that was not his true reason at all. He could see the fear in this woman's face and it disturbed him. Her eyes were solidly on his and filled with uncertainty. He tried silently to communicate to her through his eyes and his touch, all that he felt, that he would shield her from whatever might come. He hoped with all his strength that she knew he would never allow harm to come to her.

Galahad watched the gentle exchange between Dagonet and Rhiannon. He knew his brother was likely in love with their newfound, and talented healer, but wondered at what cost. That the woman returned his affection was evident, but that senator waiting for her even now, had claim to her. The Roman had not made his intentions entirely clear, but he _did_ have a purpose for his visit. That much was made clear. _Would Arthur intercede if the man tried to take her away unwillingly? _A smirk curved his lips as he looked at the stone floor. Did he honestly have to ask? What bothered him however was to what length Dag might go to- the danger he mightcause to his mending body- to aid her. A Roman might yet be the cause of his death, he thought with venom. He cared for Rhiannon and respected her as all did, but not at the expense of his brothers blood in exchange for a Romans.

Arthur had been silently watching the scene at Dags bedside carefully. He too wondered just what this might mean for Dagonet. He knew that this could turn into a bad situation very quickly. An entourage of Romans had already turned the atmosphere volatile. Guinevere, and Gawain had been left in the great hall mainly to ensure their guests safety. If one of his knights died at the hand of a Roman, particularly one so hurt as Dag, there could be no protecting them...or Rhiannon. The Romans had come unarmed in a show of good faith however, and the senator did not seem likely to cause trouble, and had made that clear when they met. Now was the time to speak. This had to be faced.

"Senator Volumnius has actually made known to us, in part at least, his reasons in coming here. He awaits your presence in the Great Hall."

"Rhiannon's eyes had grown wide as she turned and watched Arthur as he spoke. Dagonet stiffened.

Arthur began speaking to them of all that Volumnius had told them. Galahad saw the ire rising in his bed-ridden friend, and the disbelief, followed by anger in Rhiannon. He had been present when Arthur and the senator had spoken, as had most of the castles inhabitants who had been alerted to Romans approach. These were exactly the reactions he expected. Now the only thing left was to see where all of this would go. He only shook his head as Arthur continued on, explaining the matter to his captive audience.

Rhiannon somehow managed to nearly topple Bors on her way out of the chamber door. Once Arthur had finished speaking, she had been left in such a rage that all she cared for was getting to the main hall. Her legs flew. The only thing that had allowed her to be practically running down the hall was the element of surprise. Dagonet had been aghast at what Arthur had told them, and she was up and out the door before anyone could stop her.

Her mind was screaming. This was nonsense! When had this man ever been concerned for her! She was not a child to be bullied!

In her anger she never noticed Arthur and Galahad behind her striding swiftly to keep up. Arthur would not attempt to stop her anger...yet.

Dagonet was furiously struggling to get himself out of bed. Sitting up alone hurt badly, but he was managing. Getting his legs off of the bed was an entirely different matter. As if the pain shooting through him wasn't enough, he was so weak he doubted that he could stand. He had to get to the main hall somehow. To hell with her Roman blood. There was something between them, and he couldn't let it go. He had to get to her.

Sweat beaded on his face as he fought through the pain, and managed to get the heavy robe and sheet aside. The cold air hit him as he continued his battle to get his legs over the bed. His feet touched the floor, and he held his teeth gritted even as he attempted to breath deeply. He realized he was being watched. Raising his drawn face, he was greeted by the sight of Bors, with a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Come on Dag. Lets get you dressed." The large man hauled his friend to his feet. "That woman of yours is going to need you."

**_Big thanks to everyone who has reviewed this. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time to do that. Thanks to everyone reading this as well. Please keep reviewing. From today forth, any reviews I get I will try to answer at the end of my chapters. Thanks again._**

From: JustQuinn ()  
-------------------

It´s been a week. Will you update anytime soon? I check for an update every day and beginning to feel a bit frustrated. Has something happened? Please, don´t let this be it!  
I´ll still be on the lookout for you. Cheers.

**_I am so sorry about the delay, but this chapter took me awhile. This is a point where the story will turn a bit, but keep in mind I said fluff in the description, therefore it is nothing drastic. I just wanted to make sure I had this right, and that I enjoyed reading it. I apologize again, and bless you for being so loyal. I can't thank you enough._**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Threats and Decisions

Rhiannon burst upon her uncle in a wave of fury. Her wild hair matching her flaming eyes.

Senator Murrelus Volumnius looked at the wild-eyed woman with some amusement. Her rigid arms both ended into tight fists. Her dress was rumpled and dirty, as the rest of her appeared to be. She was also a bit wan looking, but he had been told she had devoted herself to one of Arthur's knights, and had slaved over him to ensure his recovery. That would make his task a bit easier for him, and if the girl thought she hated him now, just wait. He felt positively and smugly satisfied. No matter how this played out, his unconventional, and currently unkempt, half-breed niece would never see Rome again. He couldn't suppress his smile of jubilance.

Arthur and Galahad had drawn up behind Rhiannon only seconds in her wake. Seeing the exulted smile on the senator made both of them wary of what Rhiannon might do in anger. Her temper was apparent.

Murrelus noted the mens presence, but ignored them, and rather held his arms out to the raging woman in front of him. "Ah, my dear niece. How very long it has been." His voice was so light, and pleasant...mocking.

"How dare you?", Rhiannon ground out, her face a mask of wrath. She was an absolute vision of savagery. All eyes in the room were on her.

"I suppose that Artorius has informed you as to why I am here?" The senators tone was completely affable, as if oblivious to his nieces ire. Rhiannon did not speak, nor move to answer, but rather stared hard at the man before her.

"Oh come now my dear. I hardly think dramatics are necessary." Murrelus knew as he scolded his niece that she would explode if this continued much farther. He wasn't really trying to make her temper break, but he would admit the fun in toying with the girl. She had always been trouble. No, that was not quite true..it was more like she _drew_ trouble to her. That was it exactly. This visit was not an exception to that. With any hope she would never know that he was actually saving her.

His smile widened even more. "I have come here to collect you before you are allowed to shame your family with your...indiscretions.." At his last word, a sickeningly, suggestive, smile replaced the affable, mocking one.

The hall was deathly silent, as Rhiannon tilted her head a bit trying to somehow process what her uncle was saying.

"Indiscretions?", she asked incredulously. Arthur stepped around beside her.

"It is no use feigning ignorance with me niece. I came here simply to see you, but was then informed that you have kept company with one of the knights here. In his private chamber no less. It has been told to me that you have been alone with him for weeks." Murrelus knew that this was a cheap shot at her, but he had to take it. He knew of this knight by reputation that she had been working so hard to heal. If he _was_ truly a good man, and if he had any idea of what he owed to his niece, then this would not be difficult at all. On the other hand, if this impromptu plan of his failed, it really would not matter so much. He turned his attention to Arthur who had stepped forward at his accusation to defend her.

"Senator Volumnius, the Lady Rhiannon has given herself totally to the care of one of my knights when all other healers had left him for dead. It is because of her constant care that he is alive now." Arthur spoke with clear authority.

"Call it what you will, but she has still compromised herself as far as I can see. I know that you are an honorable man, Artorius, so I will ask you...Can you be certain that naught has gone on between them that would be improper?" Murrelus kept his voice even, and sincere. Artorius would be a hard man to fool.

"Did my wife, or Gawain not inform you of the mans health?", Arthur asked carefully. Something about this unsettled him. He wanted to look at the face of the woman beside him, but dared not take his eyes away from the senators face.

Rhiannon saw Gawain shift in his seat, his eyes on her. She turned her gaze to Guinevere who was also looking back, but she sat still as stone. Her eyes were guarded. Something about this was not right. She could only imagine the tension was present because they were angry with her. She was why the Romans were here after all.

It hurt her heart, though she did not blame any of them. She dropped her eyes to the floor.

"They did. They said that he regained full consciousness yesterday."

"Then you can imagine that he was hardly in the shape for what you are implying."

"Where has she been sleeping at night? In his bed perhaps?"

"Rhiannon..." She turned her head to Arthur as he spoke her name. "...you have slept upon the floor have you not?"

The lie was so close and yet she could not do it. Had her uncle asked, the lie might have come, but she refused to be dishonest with Arthur. "All nights, but one, milord."

Arthur's eyes questioned her.

"Last night, I slept beside Dagonet, but not to the end that is implied. I was so weary I could not help myself. I still wear the dress I slept in. Nothing questionable has passed between he and I." She nearly blushed at her technicality, but Rhiannon answered Arthur with strength and conviction.

Murrelus believed her completely, but she gave away precisely the detail he needed for this situation. If he was anything at all, he was clever. "What was your knight wearing I wonder?"

At his question, Arthur's jaw tensed. He saw nearly everyone in the room shifting in discomfort. It was only practical that a man wounded as Dagonet had been would be unclothed. He had been fevered and delirious for a long time, and had required much bathing. While it was unseemly for Rhiannon to bathe him, the fact was that Dagonet was in such critical health that she, and she alone cared for him in all things. She would allow no one to make potentially deadly mistakes even in the simple act of cleaning Dags body, and Arthur supported her on that. He knew that much of this the senator had knowledge of already. His pointed questions, and cool eyes gave him away. He was after something.

At Rhiannon's hesitation to his question, Murrelus knew he had his answer.

He realized he had won a small victory. However, much depended on Artorius' reaction. The cunning senator knew that he was relying considerably on the commander's reputation. Still, if he accomplished what he was after, it was better than the alternative. He had loved his younger brother dearly, and it would haunt him forever if he had to drown his child, even were it to save her from what he knew would be a worse fate. His smile vanished. Now was the time to strike. He looked at Arthur sternly.

"I am concerned Artorius. You see Rome can be unforgiving about such transgression from a woman. She has been in his bed, and that is enough, however she has seen this knight of yours naked. Touched him as well. _Even if _my niece and her _paramour_ are not actually lovers in the true sense of the word, she would still be compromised in the eyes of any man. A man may wish to lie with a whore, but a man does not desire to marry one. Since she is already known in Rome for her peculiar ways, and was subsequently exiled outside the city for such, any news of this sort of wrong doing might be enough to endanger her."

"What exactly are you getting at S_enator_?" Arthur's question was stern, as he addressed Murrelus with open suspicion.

"I do not think that I can take her back to Rome considering the circumstances. I had intended to marry her off, and pray that it might settle her, and her troublesome ways. Now, I would be risking my reputation as well as the man's reputation that she would wed. If indeed, she is no longer a virgin, the punishment for her would be grave."

"If she is no longer a virgin, I do not believe it is by my knights doing."

Murrelus noted how curt Arthur was being, and took it as a good sign. Arthur knew that Murrelus had a point. Now he would begin to see just what sort of honor Artorius, and the knight Dagonet adhered to. He looked at his niece only to see her face had turned scarlet in her humiliation, her eyes full of hatred. He was insulting her in the most degrading way that he could, but he had to play into Arthur's sense of loyalty. Perhaps his knight was not as honorable as he had been led to believe. If the knight would not be responsible for her willingly, Artorius might well make him. If nothing else, he would not want to create a tenuous situation with Rome considering his new position as ruler here, and the threat of a scandal with a senator would be powerful. That might be enough to get Rome to come to this God-forsaken outpost. Murrelus looked to his prideful niece still proud in her humiliation, and he despised what he had done to her, but it was necessary. He looked back to Arthur who stood in silence, eyes like steel.

"As you will. I would ask your hospitality till the morrow, and then we will depart. I will take this wayward child with me, and deal with her accordingly." Murrelus waited for Arthur to speak, but another voice answered him instead.

"You will not take her if she does not wish to go."

Rhiannon heard the hard, baritone reverberate in the large hall with disbelief. She snapped her head around, and gasped at the sight of Dagonet standing tall, Bors with venom for the senator in his hot eyes on one side, and Galahad on the other looking at Dag in worry. Both men held out steadying arms for their brother, but Dag stood there proud, and tall. His eyes bored into Murrelus'.

_This has to be Sir Dagonet._ Murrelus thought with awe, and satisfaction. Rhiannon's reaction alone would have made him certain, but he could see for himself that this man had obviously been in the shadow of death. She had certainly done well in saving him. He had no doubt of her healing abilities however. _She's had a good teacher_.

He noted that everyone in the room was staring at the knight in awe. The knight Gawain had risen from his seat, and appeared dumbfounded. Murrelus was enjoying himself again.

"Are you the knight she has been so..._attached_ to?", Murrelus asked the nearly dead looking, yet imposing man.

Dagonet only nodded.

Arthur's eyes had gone wide when he had seen Dag standing in the hall. He looked swiftly to Guinevere who was looking back with open apprehension, her fingers strangling the sides of her chair. He watched as Rhiannon slowly approached Dagonet, her face full of emotion. Dagonet's eyes never left the Roman senator. Now was the time to do something. This could not get out of hand.

"If everyone would leave us so that we may speak privately...my Lady, and knights shall stay, as well as the Lady Rhiannon."

The unarmed body-guards of Senator Volumnius looked to him apprehensively. "Go now.", the senator commanded them, waving them away. Wordlessly they obeyed.

Murrelus had followed Arthur to be seated next to him. When he looked back, he saw is niece gently touch the face of the large knight who now sat across from him. The man only had eyes for Rhiannon, and they were full of tenderness. Her eyes mirrored the knights exactly. _Good._ That was better than he could have hoped for. They were in love. He felt his heart lift a little. He wondered if they even realized it yet. It almost made him laugh a little, as he thought longingly, and lovingly of his wife waiting for him in Rome.

Dagonet had moved to the chair he sat in without help. There would have been no shame for him to have accepted help from Bors or Galahad. Bors had very nearly carried him here anyway, but he could not afford weakness in front of Rhiannon's uncle. His insides felt as if they were on fire with every breath he took_. ' Damn, but I'm weak.' _

Rhiannon knelt before him. She looked so lovely, even as she was so bedraggled. Her eyes sparkled like two stars with the tears that were welled in them. That took his breath away, for in her large, tearful eyes he saw her pride for him, deep worry, and endless tenderness. His chest had tightened at all the emotion she openly displayed for him, and then she had touched his face. It was a soft, loving gesture that made him suck in his breath sharply. He could not focus like this.

He needed her to stop touching him. This meeting would require all of his concentration for her uncle. The look of the man was one of intelligence, and Bors had warned him of that as he helped him here. Dag wanted all of his concentration on the imposing man in front of him, not on the woman fresh from his bed. If she remained touching him, that would be impossible.

Rhiannon had begun checking his wounds to make sure that they were not reopened, still fearing unnecessarily he might be doing some internal damage. She was putting gentle pressure on his wounds through his shirt, her sure fingers unfailingly finding them because she was so very familiar with his body. She was softly pressing on the wound by his heart, when he took her hands in his and shook his head at her. He was being blamed for her current trouble. After hearing her uncle speaking to Arthur, he was positive that the man was up to something, and now was the time to find out just what that was. Dagonet looked into her worried eyes, and tried to reassure her with his own..

Galahad walked to Rhiannon, and leaned down to put a hand gently on her shoulder. He needed to get her to sit down. Dagonet _had_ to concentrate, and Galahad knew that Rhiannon was a large distraction for him. Bors had motioned for Galahad to get a chair for her, and so he had. Now as she looked at him, he felt sorry for nearly taking his frustration out on her earlier. He had no doubt that she loved Dag. It was all over her face now manifest with her fear.She let him seat her a few feet away from Dagonet, and he was relieved that she had not resisted. This senator was obviously a clever man, and Dagonet had come to satisfy this matter. The least that he could do was to make sure that the great effort Dag had made in coming here was not wasted.

Dagonet's eyes were on Murrelus. Murrelus saw the cold concentration in them, and returned the look. "Sir knight, allow me to introduce myself. I am Senator Murrelus Volumnius of Rome._"_

Dag nodded at the man without taking his eyes off of him.

"I am aware that my niece has endangered her reputation with you, and I am curious as to how this might be rectified." It was a statement, that was meant to convey that he had his own ideas about how this might be accomplished.

Dagonet looked at Arthur warily to find the man looking back from his seat by the Senator. Arthur saw the caution in Dag's eyes and was gratified by it.

"We are curious at what you might need Senator in order to be satisfied. Would you please inform us of your terms?" Arthur asked turning to the man beside him.

"Of course.", answered Murrelus as he looked first at Arthur, then to Dagonet. "I would ask that my niece leave the room however as we discuss this matter. It is men's business."

Rhiannon had been looking at her uncle with all the distaste she could muster, but now it was replaced with surprise. She stood up angrily, squaring her shoulders. "You cannot mean to have this discussion without me present. My fate will be decided here, and I will not be dismissed as a child might be."

Arthur looked pleadingly at Gawain, the knight sitting closest him. This could not escalate. They had no idea yet what this senator was truly after, and any outburst from her could heighten his sense of injustice. Gawain moved quickly along the curve of the table till he reached her, and then grasping an arm firmly, stood awaiting Arthur to say something.

"Rhiannon, if you will, please wait for us to be done here. You have friends here and we will protect your interests as best we are able. Gawain will stay with you till this is completed." Arthur's tone was one of warmth, and confidence, but despite that, and the debt she felt she owed him, she nearly turned her anger upon him. All that stopped her was Dagonet's voice penetrating her outrage. "Rhiannon,", he spoke out huskily and low, and she turned to him, "no harm will come to you. _I swear it." _

A shiver slid up her spine as he said her name, and she bowed her head to him. Dagonet spoke with conviction, and she did not doubt him. She would not insult either of these men, particularly the latter, by displaying a lack of trust.

"I too shall go." Guinevere rose from her seat nonchalantly, and made to walk over to Rhiannon, and Gawain, but not before casting a backward look at Arthur that obviously pleased the man, and made Murrelus look away, his thoughts once more on his loved one. These were good people and he hated how he must look to them. ' _It will only get worse._' He thought regretfully.

Rhiannon looked at Dagonet once more as she hesitated at the doors. Gawain felt the tension in her arm and stopped instantly. The expression in her eyes was indecipherable to everyone, Dagonet included. That was how he knew she was weighing him. She cast her eye to the floor, and then swept through the door with Gawain, and Guinevere behind them.

Dagonet turned back to the senator in time to see the man as he rose to speak.

"We all here are aware of what I am accusing my niece of. She may or may not be innocent of what I have said against her. I honestly do not care. The facts are these...", Murrelus began to pace a few steps either direction as he spoke careful words. "...my niece has property in Rome. I want it. She is mine to do with as I please to get it. I cannot simply marry her off to some unfortunate Roman because she is peculiar, and part British. She is not a great commander that garners respect such as Artorius, so she is a burden.. If I were to marry off an eccentric, mongrel niece with the position I hold, I feel certain that it would come back to hurt my reputation, family, and in the end, result in the loss of my seat in the senate. I cannot have one such as her upsetting my life. She inherited other things as well, in the way of her parents possessions with the inclusion of a fair amount of money. I want none of that, only the property. She has refused it to me in the past however, and I feel certain she will do so again. I came here to get her, and on the voyage back, throw her over the side of the ship thereby ridding myself of my troubles, but now a more merciful way presents itself."

Bors scooted back loudly in his chair and stood up seething. Arthur minutely shook his head at the large warrior, and for once he remained quiet, although he maintained his threatening position. Rhiannon had saved Dag and that was enough reason for him to kill the man in front of him, but he could wait.

Murrelus ignored the looks of anger and disbelief on the face of all the men before him, except Dagonet whom he fixed his eyes on.

"I am curious if you will take responsibility for her? Do you have the honor I am told you have?"

"What do you want?" Dagonet growled, as he stood gripping the table till his knuckles were white. Bors moved to Dagonet's side, his eyes never leaving Murrelus' face.

"I want to be certain that she will never set foot in Rome ever again. I want her property turned over to me. Though she will not give the property to me because it is a house she is most fond of, if she is married, her husband would become legal owner, and could gift it to me. If she married a man here that would give me the confidence I need that I will never see her face in Rome ever again. Particularly if the man hates Rome."

His logic was dawning on everyone present.

Dagonet considered what he said as he looked to Arthur. Arthur looked as if he could part the Senators head from the rest of him without second thoughts. Dagonet understood completely.

If he married this woman he hardly knew, Gods knew he would likely be graced with a wonderful wife, but there was the matter of not really knowing her, and would she even want to marry him? Additionally there was this house that she obviously did not want to part with and he would be required to sign it away to a man she had to despise. Yet, if he did not she would die simply because she was unique and in the way of a piece of property. His heart lurched at the thought. '_I swore protection to her, and she trusts me.' _His thoughts sealed his decision at that moment.

"Oh, yes. There is one more condition. I will require to stay till she is bedded. On the day I am shown bloody wedding sheets, the property shall be given to me, and I will depart." Murrelus paused, looking into Dagonet's cold face. "Will you take responsibility for her Sir Knight, **_or shall I_**?"

Dagonet did not hesitate even in his open disgust. "I shall wed her."

_I swore fluff and it is on the way I promise, but there was some business to take care of first. The next chapter will find Dagonet and Rhiannon learning a little more about each other and their depth of attraction for one another. The romance will pick up. (It will involve a table.) I hope this chapter wasn't too dry.Big thanks again to everyone who is reading this and reviewing.Individual responses are below._

From: MedievalWarriorPrincess ( http/ )  
Reply URL: http/ -------------------

Oh my gosh! I have just found this and am ever so happy that I did! I ADORE IT!

Dagonet is one of my favorite knights, and it is wonderful to see a romance fic about him! He is such a sweetie and deserves his share of loving. .lol. And Rhiannon the perfect person to do so, I love her already!

I cannot even begin to list all of my favorite bits from these first chapters, so I really won't even try. I've loved everything from the first words onward!

Suffice it say that you have won my heart over with this, and I cannot WAIT for the next chapter!

This is without a doubt going on my favorites, and you as well! Truly an excellent job! Please let the next chapter come quickly!

_I cannot tell you how glad I was to read this review. I have had success with Rhiannon so far as a leading lady, and I feel like Dag has been seriously neglected in the lovin' department as well. I just wanted to write something heartfelt about this character, and I am thrilled that you like it so well. I appreciate that you have added my story and me to your favorites. That is a gigantic compliment! Thanks so much. I hope this chapter doesn't dissapoint. Please keep reviewing and let me know what you think. Sincerely-RS_

From: homeric ( http/ )  
Reply URL: http/ -------------------

Hmm interesting... I wonder what Rhiannon's uncle has planned for her - nothing good from the sounds of it! I loved the description of Dag and Rhiannon waking up together - it was a really nice moment of tentative romance. Looking forward to more :)

_The uncle...not so evil, although I hate him after this chapter and I know better. As you may have guessed from some deliberate loose ends about him in this chapter, he does have a heart somewhere under his toga. Maybe not much of one...I don't even know yet...but a heart nonetheless. I am happy with the bedroom scene myself, but that is going to step up a notch in the next chapter. I won't say how much, but Dagonet and Rhiannon do become a little better acquainted. I hope this chapter managed to answer some questions and get my plot going. Thanks so much for following this story and reviewing. It means a lot. Sincerely-RS_

From: KnightMaiden ( http/ )  
Reply URL: http/ -------------------

Wonderful update. No problem reviewing. I can't wait for an update, but take your time. Rushing is never the answer. lol (words of wisdom)

_Thanks for the reminding me not to rush. I know better, but sometimes it gets away from me. I try to write for me first and foremost, and so I take your advice to heart. Thanks for being so supportive and for reviewing. Looking forward to hearing what you think of this chapter. Sincerely-RS_

From: JustQuinn ()  
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Hey sweets, I´m sorry for pushing you like I did yesterday, but as you can tell I was really anxious to read the next chapter. And now that I have I can say that it was worth the wait!  
Reading Dagonet´s thoughts as he woke up almost made me blush! Whoah!  
Was the uncles visit the turning point of this story? Very curious to know what his intentions are, and how it will affect Dagonet´s and Rhiannons (soon to be) relationship.  
I´m really looking forward to the next chapter... and some fluff! Fluff is always welcomed! Take care and thankyou for the update. Cheers.  
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_Your reviews never cease to delight me. I have promised you fluff and it is coming. I had intended it to make it into this chapter, but the story ran long, and is in the fifth chapter that is mostly complete so with any luck it will be up in a couple of days. Think of it as a Christmas present. lol The next chapter will also give you the insight you are looking for in how this will effect our main characters.I really hope you like this, and feel that it sticks with the integrity of the story. Please keep reviewing. Appreciatively-RS_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**"Complication"**

'_A week has passed since the meeting in the Great Hall, and still she avoids me.'_ Dagonet's thoughts were laced through with his irritation. He had been confused at the first, but as time passed, it had turned, naturally enough, to vexation. Since Rhiannon had learned that she and Dagonet were to be wed, and that she would lose this prized property of hers in Rome, she had avoided him like the plague. She refused to be anywhere near him, unless it was required of her. It galled him a little, and hurt him considerably, but Arthur had advised him to give her time. _'Perhaps things might have gone better had I told her, and not her uncle_, _but the woman never gave me time to say anything.' _Dag's mind recalled the disbelief in her face clearly as she heard her uncle's words, and then her eyes had turned to him with skepticism, and questions that weren't really questions. She had known that her uncle spoke truly to her, and she had looked at Dagonet with eyes that clearly said _betrayal_. Then she had turned away from him, her actions deliberate, to convey rejection and anger. He had started to follow her, when Arthur stayed him with his hand. "Give her time to think...she will come back to you."

She had not come back though, and he felt sickened somehow. He knew what it was to be dragged into ownership of someone else. He knew what it was to be _born_ to it, yet the woman would not let him explain himself or his reasons. She had only been told some edited version of what went on in the hall, and he wanted her to know all of it...that she was given the choice to die, _or_ she could marry him. While he was hardly a young man by most standards, and perhaps not as handsome as she would prefer, he knew himself to be a good man, and he would care for her. She would never want for anything in his power to give. Surely that had to be better than death.

The wedding would not take place until he had a steadier foothold on his health, but that would not be long.

Ever since that fateful day with Senator Volumnius, he had been up and moving. His appetite had increased dramatically, and his wounds seemed to be nearing full repair. He was looking better by the day, good food and fresh air having driven away the sunken pallor of his face, and restoring his body. He could hold himself straight without pain now, but was still stiff when he walked. Riding was yet off limits to him, but his body was mending well, and his health was returning. Peace of mind remained elusive however.

After he had woken from his fever, he had enjoyed such a short, but happy time with Rhiannon, and now his chamber seemed desolate in her absence. Her things had promptly been packed off to another sleeping room after he'd met with Murrelus, and now she seemed to be unable to bear the sight of him. He could often see her watching him from a distance, but if he was in the same room with her, she would look everywhere but to him. If they passed in the hall, she would walk so fast that she might as well have been running. _'She truly is disappointed to have to wed me.' _

If she had only come to him with questions about why he had made the decision he had, perhaps he could have explained it to her satisfaction- shown her that this was for the best, but she had not come to him. Not even to explain to him why he was not good enough for her.

Dagonet knew that had to be the problem. There was no other explanation. He was acceptable enough when he wasn't intended to be her husband. _Husband._ That word made him shift in discomfort. It was pleasant in a way, knowing he would soon be wed to a talented woman who charmed him in every way, however there was the fact remaining that she loathed the idea. He shook his head while his hurt, and anger continued. The time passed slowly.

As he sat sulking in the stables alone, nearly everyone gone to the tavern for the night, he decided enough was enough. He had spent far too much time in the damn stables brooding. He had made even Lucan and Bors avoid him because of his unshakeable mood. If he was to marry the difficult, little wench, then there was no time like the present to set things straight.

Dagonet knew precisely where she would be. Arthur had given over an empty chamber next to Rhiannon's new abode to be used as a pharmacea. Arthur had reasoned that it would give her an occupation, as well as equipping the castle with another competent healer. She had been laboring over her new project with enthusiasm, and Dagonet could not help but feel a touch of pride for her despite his hurt feelings. She undeniably had a gift for healing. _'...and hurting.'_ His thoughts reminded him.

Dagonet stood up and walked outside into the dark, heading for the steps that would lead him to her. He was so tired of the merciless longing he had to speak to her, for her to be with him, and the sensuous dreams that plagued him even in his sleep. His woke from these dreams only to find himself alone and in great physical discomfort. There was no respite from her whether awake, or asleep. _'She truly is making me go mad._' He thought drily as he took the first step up the stone stairs.

Murrelus had been looking from his window into the darkened night, his thoughts far away, when movement below caught his attention.

He watched Dagonet walk rigidly across the courtyard and to the stone steps to enter part of the castle that made the fort. The grim expression on the younger man's face made him smile. He knew precisely where the Knight was going. "At last!" The senator spoke aloud with a smile. "It's about time."

Rhiannon stood back to survey her handiwork. She had toiled nearly a week, cleaning the pharmacea, visiting the seamstress for her new gowns, sewing...anything that would occupy her, and keep her from Dagonet.

His handsome image entered her mind for the thousandth time, and she loathed how much she wanted him with her. The accursed man was always on her mind. _'The accursed man I will soon be wed to.',_ She reminded herself.

How dare he have made those decisions without asking her? She could barely believe that in so short of a time, life as she had known it was gone.

The house she was losing didn't really matter because there was no depth of feeling or memory there. She had lived in it during her exile outside the main city of Rome. Her father had acquired a parcel of property with the small, dilapidated house upon it, and as it was unimpressive, it had quickly been forgotten. When her father had passed on, shortly after her mothers death, her uncle waited a modest amount of time before he had requested that she leave the city. She remembered that he had been adamant. Her home was coveted for being in the heart of Rome, and other families had been known to go to extreme, sometimes deadly lengths merely to gain a home situated as hers had been. It was during this time that Volumnius had reminded her of the little estate.

It had not mattered so much to her to leave. A house without memories was far preferable to one rife with loneliness, and ghosts, thus she had not resisted and had gone as he had requested. It was only later that she had come to find that he had truly exiled her.

She now felt angry at her natural born vulnerability to him. He, of course, had every right to do as he was doing. Her father had brought her up in an irregular manner, and had taught her to hold all life sacred. That included freedom. Her uncle on the other hand, was doing as custom dictated. Her life was his, and would soon pass to Dagonet.

Rhiannon felt light-headed every time that she thought about wedding the Knight who had so captured her heart. She could not deny her depth of feeling for the man, and that only made her feel worse._ 'How could he not have asked me...at least given me a choice?'_ She frowned hard, her eyes glazed in thought.

He was all that she could wish for, and more, and he would soon be her husband... _'...but he doesn't love me. His actions have shown me what regard he holds me in."_ Her heart sank with its weight of dejection, and of being well, and truly snared. She marveled that her hungerfor Dagonet was not lessened depite what he had done. That fact stung her pride deeply.

Lost in her own thoughts, she never heard the door to her pharmacea open, nor did she know that behind her, in the doorway, lounged a large knight content only to watch her for a time.

Rhiannon snapped out of herself, and stepped forward to the large table that had been gifted her. She lightly ran her hand over the surface of the sturdily built object, enjoying its simplicity, and slightly rough texture under her palm. Her mortar and pestle were the lone objects on the table, and she eyed them admiringly. The beautiful tools had been crafted in India, and had been a present...The whole space gave her solace. Arthur had made sure that she was given whatever was necessary for a healers chamber, and she was truly thankful. Thankful as well that he had not mentioned Dagonet to her.

With a sigh, and a sense of desolation, Rhiannon moved around the table to go to the fireplace, and retreat into her cushioned couch. It had been given to her by Arthur as well. Guinevere had apparently made it known to him that his new healer did not find her current room conducive to rest in. Now she slept here before the fire that constantly burned. Guinevere had boldly told her that her sleeping ailment would soon end once she was able to return to Dagonet's bed, and Rhiannon had seen Arthur visibly resist smiling at the remark. She had only raised her eyebrows sharply at Guinevere, even as she had mentally conceded.

Now as she recalled Guinevere's words, a new thought came to her, making her redden a bit. '_I doubt very much that my sleeping troubles will end when I return to his bed.' _Rhiannon stopped at the fireplace to let the stronger heat seep into her. A deep sigh escaped her and she had only closed her eyes, enjoying the fires comfort when she heard her door shut softly.

Startled, she spun around, to find Dagonet walking toward her. His long strides had him at her side in only a heart-beats time. She knew this was an accurate count of time, because she felt as though her heart would pound out through her ribs. Coherent thought escaped her.

Dagonet had come to her in anger, but as he had watched her at the door, it had totally vanished. His throat had gone dry with his need to hear her voice. He wanted desperately to feel her gentle hands upon him again, to touch her in any way that he might. He needed to find a way to make things right between them. It was _necessary_ that this be rectified. A part of him railed at his weakness, his being so helpless to anyone, but the need for her that had simmered for a week overwhelmed him as he watched her.

When she had moved to the fire, he knew it was either go to her now, or turn away. He did not think he could do the latter, so he had taken that first step, and had carefully shut the door behind him as he took a deep, preparing breath. He did not know what to say to her, and worse was the possibility of what she might say to him.

She had turned to him in surprise, her soft looking mouth open in a slight gasp, and he had gone to her despite his own pride and pain. His swift strides twinged him, but he had to get to her. He needed to hold her a moment before he spoke to her...before her accusing gaze could replace the surprised one. She had given so much to him, and he would always be grateful to her and her skill at mending his health. There was also the fact that he felt so lonely without her near him, and that should not have been. He had not known Rhiannon long enough to rightfully care for her as he did, but reason though he might, he _did_ care for her and that would not be swayed it seemed. Even by his defensive anger.

Before he knew he had done it, he had crushed her to him, his arms tight about her. Whatever discomfort his body felt was shoved far away. The only thing that mattered, that was real, was the woman he held to him. To his surprise, Rhiannon had wrapped her arms fiercely around his waist, holding him to her like a dream she feared might slip away. (Had he been able to read her thoughts, he would have known that she felt exactly that way.) She was not rejecting him, and that knowledge filled him with relief and wonder.

Her cheek was pressed against his chest, and he could feel her breath warm on him through his shirt. He lowered his face into her hair, and wound his hand tightly in the untamed curls.

"Rhiannon..." Dagonet's voice whispered her name so longingly, it tore at her.

She tilted her head back to look at the man she was betrothed to, and breathlessly gazed into his eyes that brimmed full of emotions she could not completely name.

She turned her eyes to his lips. Heat coursed through her making her feel weak, and she clung to Dagonet. She had watched him every chance she had been given over the last week, missing him so much that she physically ached. Now she silently begged him to kiss her. He saw the desire rising in her, felt it radiating from her, and he was gripped tightly by his own yearnings. He felt himself growing hard against her. This was going too fast, and Dagonet knew it, but blamed it on the folly of having spent a week away from each other. Their attraction to each other had existed from the first, and trying to suppress it had led to this. He understood it well. _'Still, there are things I must deal with..._'

Dagonet lowered his face till his lips barely hovered over hers. He could feel the soft puffs of breath that came from her parted lips so near his own, yet he did not move. When all was said and done this night, he wanted her to know without a doubt that she had wanted this just as much as he had. So he waited.

She raised her hand to his face, caressing his rough cheek, raising her mouth higher, even as she passed her thumb gently over his bottom lip. He fought against shutting his eyes. He needed her to see all that he felt. He wanted her to know that he cared for her, and that he would try to always make her happy and proud of him. As her husband, he would honor her, and exalt her as his wife.

She could see his heart in his eyes, as well as his desire, and could not help but shut her eyes against the intensity of it. It stayed her voice in her throat, despite part of her mind warning that there was too much undone between them. There were so many things that she needed to say to him, to ask...but in the end she pushed it away from her. All that mattered was the man who held her, the man whose dark eyes spoke to her as loudly as his words ever could. For now, that was more than enough.

She wound her arms tightly around Dagonets neck before she reopened her eyes. He was so close, yet he would not close the distance between them. She strained against him trying to reach his mouth.

He nearly moaned at the feel of her soft body somehow pressing even closer as she tried to reach his mouth, but he held the sound back, as he concentrated on keeping himself just out of reach. He had never felt so tender for a woman before, and he had certainly never dreamed of being in the situation he now found himself in with a wedding looming so near. One not exactly of his choosing and while he did not hold that against the young woman his arms, he wanted to teach her a lesson about wanting, and waiting. He had spent an endless week just wishing for a simple hello from her, and feeling her disappointment for him sharply.

He used the arm around her waist to press her even tighter into him. He knew she could barely draw breath because of his tight grip, but he was careful not to hurt her. His lust was trying to get the better of him.

"I came here to speak to you." He murmured softly, his lips very nearly brushing hers as he spoke.

Her eyes widened a bit with question.

"Would you rather we talk later?" He asked, his tone as quiet as before.

His deep voice, so softly whispering, so near, electrified her. They should speak, and well she knew it, but... _'it can wait'_. She gave that thought sway, and closed out whatever reason might have turned her from him. Her attraction to Dagonet was staggering, and after spending night after seemingly interminable night apart from him, this was the reality rather than the tormenting fantasy.

"Later." Rhiannon's voice was hardly a whisper. She wanted to tell him how much she had missed him, what it had meant to her when he came out of the sickness that had nearly swallowed him,...to ask him why he had agreed to marry her, and then throw away her belongings as he saw fit, all of it without a word to her. Then he had not come to her for a week. She wanted to say all of that and more, but her mouth refused her words, and her anger would not come. She knew her need was growing, and all else was shoved away in its wake.

"Are you certain? I have been put under the impression that I do not please you."His pride would not be denied that dig at her.

Rhiannon was taken aback by his words, and her eyes widened, but Dagonet did not give her time to speak, before he crushed her lips hard under his.

He could not help the way he kissed her, full of passion and punishment. He had felt angry, starved, and deprived of her, but now she was with him, and surprisingly, wanting him as badly as he was wanting her. At last he could indulge in her, and she returned his attentions. It had never occurred to him that she might react this way when he came to her. He had expected her disgust, but her kiss was hard and demanding as she arched into him.

Rhiannon had been caught off guard at his veiled, but apparent accusation. She began using her mouth, and her body to try to show the man in her arms how much she felt for him. It wasn't that _he_ displeased her...his _decisions_ about her life displeased her. He was here with her with her at last.

She kissed him back as hotly as he kissed her. He suckled at her bottom lip, softening his kiss for the moment, knowing he had bruised her small lips already. His kisses became easier, more exploratory, and far more sensual. Soon he covered her mouth with his, and began parting her lips with the tip of his tongue. He wondered is she would open to him.

The feel of his tongue inflamed and beguiled her. It was a surprise that quickly passed into something deeper, and darker. A wave of intense heat and moisture washed through her most intimate of areas. She throbbed there, but soon she felt her whole body pulsing with the depth of her want.

Dagonets hand still held her hair, controlling the kiss. As she opened her lips to him, his tongue was immediately in her mouth, hot and probing, caressing her tongue in invitation. Though she could feel his urgency in the tautness of his body, he held back. It was a wracking, sensual kiss.

She began to kiss him back, giving her passion sway, her tongue tangling, and stroking his, clearly displaying the depth of her hunger and heat. She did not attempt to hide it. She tried in every movement to accentuate it. If that meant she was a wanton, she really did not care.

As they made love with their mouths, Rhiannon felt one of his hands slide down her back to cup her backside, as the other moved to a full breast. She gasped in pleasure as he hardened her nipple through her dress, and she moaned into his mouth as he molded her to him. It was as if she had entered into a fiery heaven. She wanted him and was not innocent to that fact, even if she lacked experience. She simply gave her body reign, and its instincts did not fail her. Still, she wished that she knew more, could tell him what she wanted.

Her hands moved from his muscled neck, over his shoulders, and down to his brawny forearms. She rubbed her hands over them reverently, as they simultaneously deepened their kiss.

This was going so fast, but she needed more. Wave after wave of moisture hit hard between her thighs, and her

lust was taking on a life of its own. It rose in her, and poured forth through her body in her surrender. Perhaps tomorrow she would care, but this night she would be his. He was what she had always dreamed of, and never believed she could have. She would not deny this moment, or him.

Dagonet felt the change in her, though he could not say exactly how. He pulled back to look at her sweet face, both of them panting. Her arousal was so strong he could _smell_ her intimate, musky aroma, and it staggered him. No woman had ever been like this with him, and her eyes...they were hazy with need, and her acceptance...

_Acceptance_.

Now was the time he had waited for. If this continued, he doubted that he would be able to stop. He wanted her to know frustration at his hands, but had not considered how it might torment him as well.

"Why did you not come to me?"

It was such a simple question, but Rhiannon's mind took a moment to focus. He still held her tightly, but obviously expected an answer. She wasn't sure how to respond to him. His eyes were darker, and steeled to her.

"You regret that you must be wed to me."

She knew that he was not asking a question, and stiffened in his arms, as desire gave way to an anger that was swiftly rekindling. She resented his accusing tone, the anger that she sensed in him._ ' What possible right does he have to be angry with me?'_ She thought, full of a new heat now, and physical frustration. If he wanted an answer, then she would be more than happy to give him one.

"You are not the man I took you to be. You hate the Romans, yet you act like one. You take what does not belong to you."

Dagonet dropped his arms, hardly believing the words that the little wench spat at him. He controlled himself admirably.

"This eve, what I would have taken was freely offered to me.", He stated plainly. He needed no venom in his words to make them sting. The truth was enough and that was evident in her flushed face, and mouth that had dropped open.

His traitorous body grew harder as he recalled the kisses they had shared only moments before. Her soft, thin, but shapely lips beckoned him. Dagonet ignored his desire with an iron will. He was angry, and needed to control it.

"I am a fool." Rhiannon told him, as she backed away a few steps. A small sardonic smile twisted her kiss- bruised lips that his eyes still rested on.

"Perhaps _I _am the fool, and you are merely a wanton." Dagonet replied, his anger growing at her twisted smile. His temper was beginning to get the best of him. He wondered briefly just what he had saddled himself with.

Rhiannon, meanwhile, had been growing more furious at his even, unemotional voice. Now his words made her break. She was humiliated with her own actions, but it simply translated itself into her defensive anger. How dare he call her something so ugly? Yet she remembered the word in her own thoughts about her behavior. It only served to enrage her more.

"You dishonor me, and I was wrong to think that you were honest. I believed you when you gave me your word that you would settle all matters. Now I find myself losing my inheritance at your hands, and I am basically enslaved to you, also at your doing. I did not think that you of all people would take advantage of a woman in such a situation to benefit yourself. You settled this to _your_ welfare, not mine. I want no part of you." Rhiannon spoke as evenly as she could. She watched his lips tighten, and eyes narrow. _' Good.'_ She thought petulantly, and turned her back.

Dagonet could only endure so much.

"That tears it, woman.." Dagonet's voice came to her low, and menacing as he spun her about. Grasping her arms tightly he used his body to walk her backward into the table. She had stumbled, unable to get a sure footing in her surprise.

'_How dare she compare me to the Romans!' _Bors had told him that women never listen, _especially _to reason. Dagonet now saw the truth of his words. He was done trying to be patient. If she wanted to think the worst, then so be it.

With the edge of the table in her back, he lifted his cruel grip from her arms, and grasped her waist, sitting her hard atop it.

"I came here ready to explain this entire mess to you, but if this is how you want it, so be it." Dagonet's voice was hard, and his mouth harder as he once more crushed it into hers. Never before had a woman left him feeling so overwhelmed, so beside himself. He knew himself usually to be gentle despite his profession.

Rhiannon tasted the blood from her broken lips, as he truly punished her with his anger. She was seething, and trying to push against his broad chest, but to no avail. He would not yield. She felt his tongue once more seeking entrance, and she tried to refuse, but he would not have it, and soon broke through her lips, and ravaged her mouth. His arms had now grown so tight around her, she thought she might actually be crushed in his embrace. The worst of the whole situation was how her body insisted on reacting to him despite how she tried to hang onto her rancor.

She tried desperately to ignore the heat that was stirring in her again, but his demanding mouth, and the his hardness pressing into her intimately, were more than she could stand. She couldn't deny him, desperately as she wanted to. Her body recognized its natural mate. She hated her weakness. Her hands raised to him again.

Dagonet thought she was going to try and push him away again, but instead she wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. He relished the feel of her breasts pressing into him, and wanted badly to taste them. He was so hard and was hurting from the pressure of his breeches. He ground into her knowing he would likely bruise her sensitive flesh, but unable to stop himself. She moaned into his mouth, and wrapped her legs instinctively about his waist. _'This from the woman who allegedly wants no part of me.' _He almost smiled. His betrothed was full of surprises.

Her skirts had raised partly when he had settled himself between her thighs, and her bare legs around him enticed him. He pulled her up and into his chest as he broke from her mouth. With his other arm, he swept her skirts around her hips, and out from under her. He wanted her bared to him, he was mad to devour her.

Her eyes were aflame with the desire that rocked through her. How she wanted this! He had pulled back from her, and his burning eyes bored into hers, as he caressed her naked hips, moving his hands over her till they stroked the soft inside of her thighs. She could feel the wetness flowing hotly again, and she looked into his eyes steadily, telling him exactly what she wanted. Her eyes looked like flames.

He did not let his eyes waver as he caressed the crease of her thigh. His other hand moved to her bared behind, holding her firmly. She had grown so wet, that now it ran freely, and pooled underneath her. She held her jaw clenched till she could stand no more of the teasing he inflicted on her.

"Dagonet, please." Rhiannon gasped, panting heavily. She wasn't even sure at this point what she was asking him for. She had been told about some of this, but lacked experience to cope with all the things she could not even find names for. She did not have the necessary words to tell him what she wanted, and her frustration from her ignorance showed plainly.

Dagonet took pity on her then. He recognized his mistake. She was an innocent, and he should have been slower, easier with her. She should not be before him as she was, full of confusion and angry because she lacked understanding. He would give her what she needed, but then he would have to stop no matter how much he wanted this. It was true that she had given herself to him, but he did not want it to be like this. There was still too much harm done between them, to let this be added to it.

Bearing that in mind, he covered her mouth once more, her tongue instantly in his mouth. She was so eager! He groaned wishing he could thrust into her over and over again, ridding himself of his swollen, painful erection, but he only gently entered her with a large finger.

She was small, but ready for him. When she felt the first pressure of his entrance, she had stiffened, and sucked in a hard breath despite their kiss. He pulled back to sooth her, his other hand softly rubbing her backside.

He crooned her name softly as he kissed her cheek, her forehead, her nose...all the while easing his finger deeper. Her smooth muscles no longer clenched in fear, or worry, as she responded to his soothing voice.

At last, he was deep enough that he could feel her maiden-head. He kissed her lips softly, and began retreating from her body. She looked as though she would protest, but he kissed her gently again, as he began to stroke back in. He was faster this time, and soon his hand had picked up rhythm, always careful of her virginity. Her head had dropped back, exposing the fair skin of her neck that he tasted and nibbled greedily. His thumb rubbed the tiny piece of flesh that he knew would bring her completion, as she moaned out her pleasure for him. He was in agony.

He pressed his thumb harder into the soft nub, while her wetness all but coated his hand. It pleased him that she so desired him. A soft smile touched his lips as he considered that perhaps marriage wouldn't be so unwelcome under these conditions after all.

Dagonet felt Rhiannon growing tense, and knew she was nearing the end. Her panting had turned into shallow breaths, and a sheen of perspiration covered her visible flesh. He leaned hard into her, and kissed her softly.

"Don't be afraid of it. Let go..." Dagonets words drove her over the edge and into something so deep she could never have imagined it. It was as though a light exploded behind her closed eyes. A pleasurable tingling had started at her toes, and erupted. The pleasure was almost pain, and she wondered vaguely if she would live through it. Her body spasmed hard, as she thrust her hips hard against his large, caressing hand. She cried out his name gripping him tightly, nails cutting him through his shirt. Dagonet reveled in the pleasure he gave her, and savored the intimate moment between them. He wished, as he had that morning he woke with her in his bed, that time could stand still. He did not want reality to intrude on them.

Waves of pleasure continued to erupt in Rhiannon though each one was now less than the one before it. She began to come down, and clung to Dagonet, her arms once more circling his waist. She laid her head over against his chest without meeting his eyes, her body still rippling. She fought for breath.

Dagonet drew his hand reluctantly from her core, and caressed both of her exposed hips, as he rested his chin atop her head. Rhiannon began to ease her breathing into a normal rhythm again. Neither spoke for a time. When at last the silence was broken it was by Dagonet's deep, husky voice.

"Are you alright?" It seemed a stupid question to him, but he was not sure what to say. He knew he had not hurt her body, but was growing concerned about her feelings. She had not looked at him, and he had no idea what she might be thinking.

Rhiannon had not answered immediately. This had been very wrong, yet she knew that if she could repeat this evening she most certainly would. Now she understood her mother's constant flirtation with her father, and the thought embarrassed her. '_ What has just_ _happened?'_ She asked herself in wonder. Her skin was beginning to feel cool as the sweat was being dried away by the warm air of the room, and she shivered slightly.

Dagonet was mildly alarmed that she shook and leaned her back so he could see her face.

She smiled at him tenderly, and relief flowed through him as he smiled back.

"_Are _you alright?" ,Dagonet repeated.

Rhiannon only nodded her head not trusting her voice, but her smile grew, even as she reddened. She was tired of blushing so much, because it was uncharacteristic of her. Still, this was new to her, and she had never been so exposed to a man of her own accord. She felt no shame in herself for this act however, and was surprised at herself. Dagonet felt so perfect kissing her and touching her. The feel of his him in her body had been so...she could think of no suitable word, but even the memory left her breathless. Rhiannon knew a deep desire to explore his body. She could feel the heat stir in her once more.

Dagonet saw it, and laughed softly.

"That is enough for tonight I think." He told her hugging her tightly for a moment. When he released her, he could see a trace of regret in her eyes, but she still smiled at him in that warming way she possessed. He kissed her carefully as he pulled her wadded skirts into her lap, and helped her slide off the table.

She laughed aloud ,even as she adjusted and smoothed her dress, at her backside gone numb. She raised her mirth-filled eyes to Dagonet, and excused herself to a small closet to take care of certain of her needs. He watched her go, and let out a big breath. '_What is happening?'_ He couldn't seem to find his bearings, and felt the need to sit down. Dagonet went to the soft couch, and sat down in a measured way. The flames in the fireplace so near him flickered over his stoic, scarred face. His body needed release, but it seemed to be subsiding in small increments. He looked around the new pharmacea and was pleased by all that he saw around him, though her shelves were virtually devoid of herbs, and barks that she would need. With the room pieced together, he knew that her next project would have to be gathering those things. He could help her, and sudden warmth from within enveloped him as he acknowledged that this was something that they could do together.

He spotted a small basin of water on a pedestal almost hidden in the shadows of a corner. Rising, he went and washed his hands of Rhiannon's fluid. He could hardly believed what had passed between them, and shook his head again

"Does something trouble you?"

Rhiannon's gentle voice came from behind him, and he turned his head to her as he dried his hands on the linen resting on the pedestal. Her brow was creased as she waited for an answer.

"I am not troubled, at least for the moment." Dagonet replied honestly. "Will you sit with me?" He motioned to her couch. She was so sweet to his eyes, and he smiled at her fluffed up hair that was perpetually unkempt in an almost deliberate sort of way. He had found that the untamed locks were trademark of her, and he loved every wayward curl.

She smiled at him fondly as well as shyly, and stepped forward to him. He secured his arm at her waist as they approached the couch together. Sitting down, her drew her to him in an embrace that she welcomed, and she kissed his jaw lightly. He let his mind slide into the rhythm of her breathing, the pulse of her body... He felt wonderful despite everything that still hindered him. Then the same thought that had been plaguing him for days broke through the comfortable stillness, and drew him up. He had known it would and had put it off as long as he could. Rhiannon felt him tense in her arms, and looked up to him in dismay. She silently questioned him with her probing eyes.

"Why will you come to me like this, but not in any other way?" Dagonet's tired tone, and eyes brought forth her compassion, and concern.

"I am not precisely sure what you mean. Could you explain just so that I may be certain of your meaning?" Their relationship was so muddled and she was beginning to get the feeling that she might have contributed more than she originally thought, albeit unwittingly. She could read much from him.

Dagonet recognized the sincerity in her and was relieved that at last he might have the answers he had so wanted, and equally dreaded. Rhiannon's head was leaned over against his cradling arm, and he touched her flame-kissed face tenderly. Surprising him, she drew his hand to her mouth and kissed his palm lingeringly.

"This is what I speak of." He told her resignedly, as he slipped his hand from her, and laid it softly on her hip. "For a week you have refused to come to me, to let me tell you what had happened in the Great Hall, to explain myself as well as my motives. You risked your life with the Saxons, you stayed by my side for weeks, and while I can attribute that to the fact of your being a healer, that does not explain your open attraction to me. You slept in my bed encircling me as a lover would, and I had thought that you cared for me." Dagonet's tone grew a bit harsh with his last sentence, but he held her just as he had.

Now it was making some sense, and she was opening her mouth to explain, when he finished his own thoughts.

"Am I perhaps not as acceptable a prospect for a husband, as I would be for a lover? I would have you to know that I did not choose this marriage without first being left with no other possible choice. The consequences of refusing would have been dire."

His tone was hard, but he remained patient. He had no idea that his careful words had cut so deeply.

'_He will wed me for lack of choice! I am a punishment for him!' _The voice in Rhiannon's mind was screaming.

She looked into his face feeling humiliated and horrified. She wished now that she had listened when people had tried to explain the events of a week ago, but she had been so hurt, so _pissed off , _that she would hear none of it. _'He did not choose me!_' Her insides felt as though they had clenched in a tight ball.

'Rhiannon?" Dagonet was alarmed at the appalled expression in her wide eyes. He shook her a little.

She closed her eyes and turned her head downward. She needed to think. Two unbidden tears seeped from under her eyelids and ran their bitter course down her cheeks.

_I underestimated this chapter when I began writing it, and it has turned out to be a fairly long one. I hope it reads well to everyone, and BIG thanks for all the readers, and reviews. To KnightMaiden, I can't find what I did with your review in my e-mail to post it, but I want to thank you for it. I hope this chapter was as fantastic as you were thinking it would be. I am glad to know that someone else needs to take time-outs from writing too much too fast. It's encouraging._

From: Alex -------------------

I am FLOORED by your writing style, so much better than a lot of the poor stuff out there. I write quite a bit of non fanfic short stories and i'm always disappointed by some of the poor writing out there. I'm uber-impressed! I love it, Dagonet is definately the most underrated knight and your o/c is wonderful! I can't wait to read the rest! Keep up the great work.  
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_God/dess bless you! This was such an awesome review, and thanks so much for this._ _I hope you keep reviewing, and I am so happy that people are responding to Dagonet in this story, as well as Rhiannon. Thanks for the remark about my writing style. I actually began writing this story in an effortto improve it. It had been awhile sinceI had written much, and never anything that required chapters. I couldn't believe that someone out there liked my writing enough to say they were FLOORED. Thanks for the encouragement._

From: sailorgirl013 ( http/ )  
Reply URL: http/ -------------------

Love the story so far please update soon

_I did mean to update much sooner than this, but as I said I made an error by underestimating this chapter. Thanks so muchfor the review._

From: Essenceofcrazy ( http/ )  
Reply URL: http/ -------------------

I love this story sofar. You have given Dag a believable personality and made his healing time reasonable. Continue please I look forward to your next chapter!

_I am definitely glad that you like the story, and I totally appreciate the remarks about Dag's personality, and healing time. I try to be careful about such things, and I am relieved that I am succeeding. I hope this chapter is as good as you had hoped for._

From: homeric ( http/ )  
Reply URL: http/ -------------------

So Murrelus isn't quite as bad as he seems! There must be some interesting history when it comes to Rhiannon and Rome - her uncle is pretty adamant about his wish that she not return there... Poor Dag and Rhiannon having to marry each other (smirk) I have a feeling that as far as arranged marriages go it could work out rather well, although I'm looking forward to seeing what happens between them! Happy writing, H :)

_There is a lot of history that will come out over time about Rhiannon and Rome. Murrelus as well. He isn'tall bad... just a little bad.I think perhaps the up and coming marriage is going to be entertaining, and I am looking forward to it myself. Thanksso much for all the reviews so far, and I really hope this chapter readslike itplayedout in my head._

From: JustQuinn ()  
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Hey Sweets,  
Exciting chapter. I´m torn wether to hate her uncle or at least give him some amount of respect. He seems like somewhat of a good man, with a soft spot for love.  
Imagining Dagonet standing there, tall and proud despite his injuries, made my knees go weak (good thing I´m sitting down).  
But will they let Rhiannon in on her uncle´s plan? Would only be fair and I´m having trouble believing that Dagonet would betray her, after they wed, by giving her property away behind her back.  
But let me tell you, that through this chapter I kept thinking: "Where does she get all this from" Your writing never cease to amaze me. You have a gift, use it as much as you can and never stop writing!

Oh, fluff on the way! I´m really looking forward to the next chapter, after reading your note. Sounds sweet. And a table? That comment certainly plays with ones dirty mind... ;o)  
Anyway, I will be off to Stockholm (I´m swedish) on Thursday and staying there for a week. Hopefully I get to attack someones PC up there and check for your next update so I can review it as soon as possible.  
Enjoy the holidays and I´ll speak to you soon. Take care, Sweets, and thankyou.  
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_I make up these stories in my head and I think it out when I am getting ready to write, so that is where all of these ideas of mine come from. I try to make plausible cause and effect to lead my story along, so I have to come up with something. I am beyond flattered at this review, and that you think so well of my writing. I cannot tell you what that means to me. Hope your trip went well, and that you enjoy this chapter. (I couldn't let Rhiannon not now about her lost property. It was something good for her to be angry about. lol)_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Pointless Explanations, and Beginnings"

Dagonet stared at the trails of Rhiannon's tears cast into a rainbow of iridescence by the flickering flamesthat danced in thefireplace. He drank in her beauty even as he was disturbed by it. She had accomplished the unlikely combination of appearing as a sort of living statue. She sat so still, her eyes closed to him, hands clenched in her lap. Her usually expressive facehad fallentotally passive. Only the flames and her tears gave her life in that moment, and it both awed and scared the man who had knelt before her.

He had said something wrong and he knew it, but could not quite place what it could have been. Dagonet had chosen his words carefully, and had spoken directly as was his habit. Still, something had gone awry, and he was hardly under the impression that she was a weak creature that would break even after all that she endured and had yet to come. She would not suddenly have given way like this. Whatever had happened was very much his doing he had no doubt. After she had refused to look at him, to acknowledge him at all, he had moved from the couch to her feet, and now kneeled before her, gazing into her flame-shadowed face. She looked ethereal, her tears giving the appearance of crystalline lava, her hair burnished...she appeared all at once to be formed of fire and shadow.

Dagonet reached out to touch her face, to wipe away the moisture left behind on her cheeks. Two, lone tears...it troubled him that she was this restrained. He had gathered that tears with her should not be taken lightly, though he knew there was certainly time for her to prove him wrong about that. He could not picture her as the sort of woman who would weep over foolishness though, no matter how he might try to conjure it up.

His calloused fingers brushed her cheek, and then the other before she opened her eyes. The fire turned her liquid eyes molten, and his breath caught. He did not take his hand from her face, but rather stroked the soft cheek, and felt her lean minutely into his touch. Her look was a sad one.

"What have I said that would hurt you so?" Dagonet asked, the timbre of his voice deep, but softened. He waited with apprehension to know what it was that so offended her. He seemed to always be the cause of trouble with her recently and despised himself for it.

Rhiannon hesitated a moment to try to order her feelings and thoughts, but knew that would take far longer than she wanted Dagonet to wait for an answer. He was far more than handsome, the flames behind him dancing their light and darkness over him. She held her tongue a moment more just to absorb the sight before her...to try to commit it to her memory. The great Knight kneeling before her was the epitome of everything she could have dreamed, had dreamed to some level, but certainly nothing that she had fantasized equaled the man before her. She thought of his kisses, and the more intimate touches that had followed, and found her throat closed tightly around her voice for a moment. It had been so..._ '_

_exquisite._

That was the only word that could describe what that encounter had been to her, and she wondered if it had been so touching to him. She knew that he had been with the women at the tavern, but that did not mean that she could not be special to him. At least she hoped. Hesitantly, she opened her mouth to speak.

"I would not listen to anyone when they tried to explain to me what had happened...between you and my uncle. I was so angry that I did not care to hear it..." Rhiannon took a deep breath as she prepared to continue. Dagonet lowered his hand to hold hers that were rigid fists in her lap. His expression was open, yet telling nothing. Rhiannon tentatively went on.

"I said terrible things to you...I am so sorry that I accused you of taking advantage, and comparing you to the Romans...I did not know that this was a punishment for you that you should marry me. Knowing my uncle though, I am hardly surprised." The last was said in a half joking manner that Dagonet did not fail to hear. He was pleased that at least she maintained a sense of humor.

Still, something she said confused him.

"Punishment?" Dagonet asked, openly puzzled.

"Yes, you said that had you not agreed to wed me the consequences would have been bad. Did you not? I hate knowing that you are forced to wed me. It is humiliating, and painful to me. I did not know till you told me just now that events unfolded in such a way. I cannot even explain to you how low I feel that I am made a penalty for you. I am not even sure now what to make of what has happened between us this night..." Rhiannon dropped off softly, her head lowered to her lap. Her words had been forceful at the first, but her embarrassment threatened to swallow her at the last. She fought the hard knot in her throat that presaged more tears.

Now at last he had it. _She was confused_. He smiled mildly relieved, but only mildly.

"Woman, you will look at me." Dagonets voice was firm, and insistent. He placed his hand under her chin to raise her head. Her eyes showed her wounds plainly as well as a her pride behind new tears that had begun to gather. She did not try to look away from him this time, and he leaned in closer so that they were nearly nose to nose. Each took comfort in the other's nearness, and stared into each other for answers.

Dagonet wove his fingers through hers, and leaned in quickly to press a tender, loving kiss against her small, rosy mouth. She kissed him back easily, and he prolonged their contact a moment to savor the affection that she gave him. Her lips moved against his without hesitation, but Dagonet kept his kiss as soft, and gentle as possible. He hated taking his mouth from hers, but knew it was necessary. This could not go on. Problems kept springing up from misunderstandings, so the only thing was to make her understand, and to make her know that he cared for her.

"Rhiannon, all that has happened between us has been what both of us wanted. I _do_ care for you. What happened this night is what should go on between a man and a woman. There is no shame in it." He did not bother to add that it was even less reprehensible because they were betrothed. That was a subject that they had yet to discuss, but they would have to sooner or later. For now, he felt that later might be the better choice.

Rhiannon had a glimmer of a shy smile on her mouth, but it vanished almost as soon as he saw it.

"Do you understand that?" Dagonet asked, laying his forehead against hers.

"Yes." Rhiannon's voice sounded tired. Dagonet had been told that her sleep was troubled lately.His had been as well.

"You misunderstood me as well. The punishment was more directed at you than at me. I could either marry you, or..." Dagonet paused a moment, not wanting to tell her what her uncle would have done to her. So much had happened to her that he was in no hurry to tell her that she was very near to being drowned. He would tell her, just not this night. "...your uncle would have done with you as he saw fit."

Rhiannon was speechless. _He had done this for her._ She was not fit for this man at all. Surely he deserved some woman more worthy than she. He was revered by everyone whether they knew him personally or by reputation, and somehow she would be the one that would wed him. She would wed him because he took up her cause as his own. '_Because he feels he owes me something..._It was a never-ending nightmare brought on by his sense of chivalry_. "Am I really blaming him, or am I just angry at_ _myself?_" She already knew the answer. She was beginning to believe that she was the curse her uncle always implied she was.

"Do you understand at last?", Dagonet asked, feeling certain that all was solved in this matter at least. He knew how many things were left for them to discuss, but now at least there would be one less. Two actually, he supposed. Bors had been curious if a woman as passionate as this one seemed to be could be a virgin at twenty-five years. He did not seem to think it possible. Dagonet, upon remembering how it was that he found out she was intact, nearly gave in to the urge to yank her off her couch and under him. It was certainly a pleasant thought...

"Yes, I understand perfectly." Rhiannon stated, her voice sugar sweet. Sarcasm dripped from her tongue, but Dagonet let it go. She was hard to deal with and he was sure that sleep would make her easier on the morrow. Him as well. They were both too exhausted for this.

"Tomorrow if you will come with me, I will take you to places in the woods to find the herbs, and barks that you will need." He let his eyes wander the room before settling on her face again. Her mouth broke into a smile that was genuine and full of delight.

"Really? When?" She asked with so much enthusiasm that it warmed him through.

"As soon as you've breakfasted if you like. We will have to walk..I am not yet fit for a horse." He wondered if she would be up to it. He knew of the most wonderful places to take her for harvesting the plants she needed, but it would be a long walk.

"Thank you." Her smile grew and she squeezed his hands in hers. "I will be up early My Lord."

Dagonet stood, and raised her with him to pull her into his arms.

"Between us, there will be no titles." His voice was firm, and so were his eyes. There would be no argument.

Rhiannon nodded, awestruck again at his warmth, strength, the smell of him that was so like his taste. She felt heat curling in her stomach again, and pushed closer, flattening her breasts against him. His arms tightened, even as his eyes darkened into a color like the night sky. He had such a way of making her irrational. She feared that in the end of all this he would think her no better than a whore, but she had not the will or even truly the want to restrain herself.

"Stay with me this night, Dagonet."

The words were out of her mouth before she knew it. Dagonet saw the shock in her eyes, mixed with her desire, and smiled sensually down at her.

"I would, sweet one, but tonight is not the night for this. I would rather take my time with you than have you right here on the floor, or on your table. When I make you mine, it will not be in such a way. Tonight, I have no such patience in me, and you deserve so much more." She blushed sweetly.

He was hard as a rock, and wishing abjectly that he did not have to say no to the soft woman pushing into him. Dagonet remembered how wet she had been, and clenched his jaw. Rhiannon's nipples had grown hard, and were pushing into his chest. He nearly let go of her waist to cup one plump breast, but held tighter to her instead. Her hazy eyes mirrored his own regret. He did not think he would even be able to kiss her goodnight. He was drained and knew she had to be as well.

"Shall we say goodnight then?" He murmured, as he placed his mouth at her temple.

"I guess we had better." Rhiannon murmured back resignedly.

Dagonet straightened up, and put his hands on her hips to distance them a little.

"I will meet you here tomorrow, and we will go. It will be a long day on foot, so bring all that you will need, and dress comfortably." Dagonet instructed softly.

"Are you up to such a strenuous day?" Rhiannon asked, concerned.

"It will be fine. You healed me well." The pride in Dagonet's voice was obvious. It made her smile.

"Very well. I will be ready." She told him, all smiles.

"Goodnight then. Sleep well."

"Goodnight."

Dagonet dropped his arms, and turned resolutely to the door, and as he was pulling the door shut behind him, he was only thankful that she did not call him back, or stop him with a touch. He would not have left her.

He had been surprised that she had asked him to stay with her. She was very forward, and yet so naive. It amused him, but concerned him as well. That naivete could cause her much pain. As her husband he could protect her though.

_Husband._

He held himself taller as he walked down the dim corridor. He had dreamed of a woman that would love him, that would desire him, and need him. Someone who would want him and only him. He had wanted a family of his own as long as he could remember, and Bors had been a constant source of envy for him over the years. He had so hungered for love, but had finally resigned himself to being alone.

_Rhiannon_...

Every time that he looked on her she seemed more beautiful than before in her unique way. Her face was so expressive, and her manner was unrestrained, and certainly she was intelligent. Brave as well. She had demonstrated that many times.

She cared for him he knew, but he wondered if she could ever love him...if she could want him as he had so needed to be.

Some here were suspicious of her because she was part Roman, and she had drawn more Romans here. Still, the villagers that had come from Marius' estate had quickly made it known how she had risked her life in healing them, and provided extra food to their children, those with child, the ailing, and the old. Soldiers had been everywhere and yet she had defied them without thought of herself apparently.

Dagonet listened to their tales carefully, and swelled with pride over each story.

She was a good healer. Better than good. She also had a big heart, and that touched him deeply. Honestly, she was a prize for him, and she thought she would be a punishment. He snorted at the idea. He was beginning to think that her uncle had done him a favor.

Murrelus, lying in his darkened room, was hoping for just that. It was a big gamble to throw the large Knight and his niece together this way, but he did not for a second doubt their affection for one another. As an added bonus, Dagonet was a good man. At any rate, he _could not _take Rhiannon back to Rome. There were some things that were simply worse than death for a woman.

Murrelus rolled over and in minutes fell into untroubled sleep, his mind satisfied with his work.

_I want to apologize that I can no longer respond to my reviews here, so I will be taking care of that individually. Also, I know that Rhiannon is being difficult, and a little whiney.lol She is a typical woman in that way, but bear with her. She does this when she doesn't know what else to do. Thanks so much everyone for the reviews._


	7. Chapter 7

_There are some explicit scenes and a touch of strong language. Just lettin' you know. I don't want to offend anyone, but I do not apologize for my portrayal of the characters. Enjoy!_

Chapter 7

**"Reckonings"**

Rhiannon paced back and forth across the pharmacea, her hunting boots striking the stone floor in soft pats. Her arms were alternately crossed at her chest, or she was hitting the heels of her hands on her hips with a fair amount of force.

She did not doubt that Dagonet would come soon, and then they would go out into the woods together. He had mentioned that this would likely be a full day, so she had prepared for one. A full pack was perched on the table stuffed with a multitude of empty pouches, a little knife she reserved for the purpose of harvesting, a water skin, her cloak, and food stuffs that she had pilfered from the kitchen- goat cheese, barley cakes, and apples. She took care that there would be enough for both of them. More than enough actually. She wanted to be certain that Dagonet could eat enough to keep his strength up. Normally this day would have been more than easy on the warrior, but he was still healing and would surely grow tired if the day displayed _any_ difficulty.

A shy smile turned Rhiannon's mouth upward as she drew up a mental image of Dagonet for what seemed like the thousandth time since she had risen. He was so ruggedly handsome. As far as she was concerned he was beautiful, not only outwardly, but inward as well. She didn't like to dwell as much on his looks, as his character. It made her feel superficial. Still, she decided that having good looks never hurt a person, but it was certainly his heart that drew and intrigued her. Her thoughts of the past days kept replaying. She was lucky to be betrothed to him. She had been telling herself that ever since she had found out that she was to wed him. It was an absolute truth. She only wished that the circumstances of their coming together might be different. What if she was not what he had in mind for a wife? They knew so little about each other. Even basic things about him she lacked knowledge of. It embarrassed her to a degree that the women at the tavern knew him better than she, and not only in a physical way. Little details when they would speak of him gave that away. Perhaps today would give her an opportunity to ask him about his life, his likes and dislikes.

Rhiannon wondered what his life in the Steppes had been like before he was taken from his home, and she wondered equally, if not more, if he ever intended to return there. As his wife, she would no doubt accompany him, and she liked some adventure here and there, but the Steppes bordered on frightening to her. She had heard of the harsh climate and lifestyle there. It was said that every day in that place was a struggle against the land itself for your life. What would that be like for her, but more importantly what might that be like if they had children?

'_Children!'_

Rhiannon clapped her hands to the sides of her head as her pacing took up more energy. She screwed her eyes shut and sucked in large amounts of air. Somehow she had to get a handle on the situation that she know found herself in.

She slowed her steps until she finally stood still. Dropping her hands to her sides, she opening her eyes again. She needed to stop thinking about it so much, and just roll with it. That was the only way that she was going to stop herself from going mad.

Rhiannon walked the few steps to the table and hopped up to sit on it's surface. She had meant to try to settle herself before Dagonet arrived, but the place that she had chosen to sit on only managed to bring up memories that flustered her more. She rolled her eyes upward, acknowledging the futility of seeking rest from...everything.

Rhiannon's leather clad legs swung back and forth in different directions with pendulum regularity. She stared at the grayish-brown floor, allowing her thoughts to have reign, against her better judgement. Her hands clenched at the edge of the table as she recalled the night that had passed between them.

She had loved being in his arms, and the way he had touched her...all the ways he had touched her. She remembered clearly the feel of his hands at her breasts, the way his hand twisted in her hair, but the recollection that made heat rise in her belly was that of the most intimate touch they had shared. She struggled to pull her mind away from the sensation of his hot hands, and his fingers, loving her and examining her most intimate places. She had loved holding him, feeling his hard body against her. She had felt the same need in him that had swallowed her.

She would try so hard to make him happy every day of their life together, _'but will that be enough?' _She wondered. Dagonet deserved better than someone like her for a wife, but on the other hand she reasoned that no one would ever be good enough for him as far as she was concerned. Therefore, she might as well have him. She smiled a little at that.

She thought of the little estate in Rome that she was losing. While it did hold some memories, she was not angry at it's loss as a trade for a new, and fuller life here. It was more a matter of _how_ the property was being taken from her. The whole situation _still_ made her feel violated. Rhiannon was more than aware that she had been a fool by not listening, not going to Dagonet for a full explanation, but he could have just as easily come to her.

'_But, he did come to you, you little idiot...' _She reminded herself, and grimaced a little.

Not even Bors had discussed any of this with her through the week. Vanora would drop unsubtle hints that she should speak to Dagonet and the sooner she did so the better for everyone.. Rhiannon's smile grew larger as she remembered that those had been Vanora's words almost verbatim _every_ time that she saw her. Vanora was a good woman, and Rhiannon had liked her on sight. That first impression had proved accurate. The woman was invaluable to her.

Guinevere meanwhile had admonished her clearly, and pointedly, when she chose to advise her, but Arthur, Galahad, and Gawain stayed clear of the subject of Dagonet. She wondered how much longer they would have been able to stand not intervening in some way. She doubted it would have been very much longer. It was not their way to be silent.

Rhiannon turned herself a bit to look out of her window. The morning was still dim, but no longer dark. The sky showed a slit on the horizon that promised a glorified sun in only another hour or so. How something like the sun could begin in such a delicate way, with all it's pinks, lavenders, golds, and oranges was spellbinding, and she lost herself in it's beauty totally.

That was why the solid rap at the door nearly unseated her from her perch. The hard sound had made her jump what felt like a foot from the table. She hadn't realized that she was quite so on edge today.

'_Yes you did.'_

Pushing off the table, she started nervously toward the door when Dagonet opened it himself and entered.

He shut the door behind him without looking back, and stood there a moment taking her in. She looked similar to when he had first seen her.

'_She had worn something similar under her dark cloak...'_

That image of her had stayed in his memories, though neglected for a time. He recalled it now as he looked upon her, so similar to that first glimpse. _She had been_ _staring full at him, her hair swirling in the snowy, frigid wind. Though it whipped over her face, she had seemed not to notice and he had stared back. She had been so dark, so unusual.._.

Now as she stood before him, she wore a long, black tunic over a creamy cotton shirt with flared sleeves, black doeskin breeches encased her legs snugly, and she wore unusual thigh high boots that were turned down and cuffed at the knee. They appeared to be made out of a soft leather, and somewhat worn. The most dramatic thing for him however was her hair. For the first time he could remember, it was forced into some semblance of order. The crazy, distracting locks were pulled away into a long braid, although some stray curls had worked themselves out of their confines around her face. She was looking at him with so much pleasure it made her shine. She looked...sexy. There was no other word that he could think of.

"Good morning." He greeted her smiling.

"Good morning." Rhiannon echoed.

Several feet still separated them.

"Are you ready then?" Dagonet knew this was an unnecessary question. He had heard about a great deal of her preparation from the kitchen staff. Many of them still did not like this woman. They had all gossiped that she would bring trouble with her, and so she had in the way of a boat load of Romans.

Apparently, she had eaten almost an hour before he had. He had been told that she had taken her breakfast among the staff, in silence, and apparently in a hurry. The way in which the servants had described how she had eaten, made him laugh heartily as he pictured it. He remembered her ravenous meal in his chamber the first evening they had truly met, but from the sounds of her breakfast this day, that had been restrained. It made him laugh even as he thought of it.

The gentle rumbling sound made Rhiannon smile at him even more. It was a wonderful, warm sound and she wondered what had caused it.

"I think I have everything that I might need. What is so humorous? Do you think I look silly in these clothes of mine?"

_Silly? _Dagonet could see the good humor in her this morning, and was thankful that all sign of yesterdays storm clouds were past.

"You look _very_ appealing. I was thinking of something that the kitchen workers told me this morning when I went to get an early breakfast and some food to take with us."

The mischievous glint in his eyes, told her what she wanted to know and she laughed herself as she recalled what she must have looked like. She had cleaned her plate and swallowed her weak wine in 2 minutes flat. She laughed a little harder before she grabbed the pack off the table and slung it on her back. She was nervous.

Dagonet was secretly pleased that she had been totally prepared by the time he had come to her. More than that, she had obviously been eager for the day to begin, judging by all accounts. Now, she was shining like a light in the dim room, as if there were no where else she wanted to be but with him. It was almost as good as waking up with her twisted around him in bed. He smiled to himself as he opened the door and gestured for her to step out before him.

He knew it was too soon for him to be wandering about in the woods, especially the distance that he intended to go, but he needed this time with her. Who knew how little time there might be before he would be healed and their wedding would take place? Her uncle had oddly stayed out of the way ever since the Great Hall. He had said nothing more after that day, and kept mostly to himself. Murrelus took his meals in his chamber, and left everyone alone. Dagonet wondered at the peculiar behavior. This did not seem to fit the cunning, outspoken man he had met. He would have to ask Rhiannon about it.

She was so alluring in the clothes that she had chosen to wear, and didn't even seem aware of it. He watched her toned legs walk across the room, and out the door before he followed. If he had only looked at her face, he would have seen the smirk of satisfaction that shaped her lips. She had wondered how she would look to him in her strange clothes, and now she knew.

They were hunting clothes that she had designed herself, and had a fine tailor make for her at her tiny house in Rome. The tunic had been made later at Marius'. In her exile, and lacking servants, she had learned to hunt out of necessity. She had gotten quite good at it.

Dagonet and Rhiannon stood in the dark hallway and surveyed each other. The tension was noticeable. Neither really knew what to do now that emotions had been played out, and the enchantment of night was gone.

Rhiannon took the first step, and closed the small space between them. Looking into his gentle face, she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed into him, in a tight embrace. She smiled into his chest as she felt his arms encircle her solidly. Turning her face upwards to grin at him, she found him smiling broadly down at her. She knew they had to look like two grinning fools just standing there as they were, but it felt so good to lower the tensity between them that she didn't care. Dagonet lowered his mouth to her forehead in a soft kiss.

"Shall we go, milady?" He asked finally.

Rhiannon stepped back from him with a nod, as he took her hand in his. The feel of her soft, smaller hand was precious to him. The fact that she was walking hand in hand with him was a sign of trust on her part. Dagonet tried to walk without showing weakness, seeing that the woman who walked beside him would be sure to notice even the slightest abnormality and worry both of them over it. He knew she was skilled and he would not underestimate that, however, he also knew that women were often going on about such things relentlessly. She would mean well and he knew it, but she would just have to learn to trust his instincts about himself.

Thus, they walked out of the fortress, and out into the moist, heavy, morning light. Though the world was still dim, they could hear the sounds of waking all around them as they walked virtually unnoticed toward the trees behind the fort. The only ones that took any note were the chickens who scampered here and there in impotent, clucking fits to get away from their feet.

Vanora was usually up and around this time of the morning, so she might have seen them go and happily so, but she was just as happily occupied with Bors. They were working on a potential number twelve.

Rhiannon saw Dagonet cast his eyes over to the cemetery that kept the fallen Knights. His face showed no expression as he kept up his long strides. She was glad that they would shortly be in the woods because she would never be able to keep up with him like this. Soon, he might be dragging her by the hand. She tried to pace her brisk steps to his.

She recalled the day that she had watched him go to the graves of Lancelot, and Tristan. There were other graves that he had stopped at briefly before he left, but she hadn't known those men at all. Lancelot and Tristan she had at least seen, and people had spoken of them so colorfully that she felt as though she had a good idea what they had been like in life.

Dagonet had gone there the day after she had stopped speaking to him. He had looked so weak and worn, but had gone alone to mourn his brothers. She had wanted to go to him so badly, but her pride had kept her away. Perhaps on that occasion it was for the best that he had been alone. She did not want to intrude on his sorrow over their loss. Sorrow of that sort was intimate and Rhiannon knew it well.

She was pulled up short and out of her thoughts as Dagonet stopped walking. He had noticed that she had been lost in her thoughts, but he did not ask though he wondered. She smiled at him again, an apologetic one for not paying attention.

"There are many places I want to take you, though I must confess that I may not be able to go to all of them. We may have to do this in parts." Dagonet's voice was clearly grudging.

"Of course. I trust you to not overdo yourself, Sir Knight." She answered playfully, and Dagonet was relieved.

"Come then." He redid his grip on her hand, and they walked into the dark trees.

Rhiannon loved forests. They enchanted her. She had not been able to walk freely in one for such a long time! At Marius' she had been unable to for fear of his soldiers. He was not above letting them rape, even one of his household. Marius had made his distaste for her lineage clear, so she had treaded very carefully. Her time there had been hellish. She had been relieved to see him die, and might have felt bad about that except that seeing Dagonet so near to death, not to mention Lucan, and all at his hands, alleviated any guilt. Marius had truly been an evil man.

Rhiannon wondered what Lucan would find to do today. She did not tell Dagonet that he had made it a habit to visit her over the last week. Lucan was introspective, and often tired of the children he played with. That was part of his appeal to her. She had been much the same throughout her life. Dagonet had managed to chase even the staunch Joles from the stable with his black moods, so Lucan hadn't stood a chance though Dagonet obviously adored the boy. She had no doubt that Guinevere would occupy him in her absence. Feeling confident that for the first time in days things were beginning to right themselves, Rhiannon walked along contentedly beside Dagonet.

The silence that lay between them was an easy one, and she simply enjoyed the day. The sky was becoming ever more light overhead, and bathed the tops of the dense trees, and new sunlight slanted between the trunks. Though their steps were light, the ground crunched with leaves and twigs that lay thick under their feet. Often she would find Dagonet pulling her through a copse, or over downed trees. There was evidence everywhere of the Woads having been here in battle. Thankfully all of the bodies had quickly been dealt with of Woad and Saxon alike, else disease would have hit. There had been so much death, and blood. She had no desire to see more and in such a glorious, holy sort of a place. The farther they walked, the more peaceful and undisturbed the forest seemed.

Dagonet was armed with a light sword and a dagger, but seemed unconcerned. The Woads still lived in the forest, but were camped farther down than their trek would carry them, and now they were firm allies with Arthur. Rhiannon had never hated them anyway. She had never been given a reason to hate any one race, or people. She had been taught better than that.

Her attention was drawn back out of her thoughts as Dagonet stopped and looked to her. She waited for him to say something but he merely looked at her for a moment. He squeezed her fingers and walked ahead of her and into a grassy clearing that sparkled with dew drops and warmth. As she took in the inviting and beautiful spot, Dagonet settled himself stiffly on a fallen tree at the edge of the clearing. Rhiannon sat down as well.

"This is breath-taking." She spoke softly, afraid that if she shattered the silence with her voice, this place would melt away like some bewitchment.

The grass was downy, and emerald, the heavy dew upon the blades showing off more brilliantly than diamonds under the fully illuminated sky. Birds sang and twittered morning songs, and crows sounded in the distance. The trees had left this little spot alone, and seemed to wall it in protectively. It felt like the heart of the forest lay in this open spot. She could not take it in quick enough. It was brilliant.

Dagonet was more than pleased that she liked it here. He had come here often and always alone because it gave him peace in it's solitude. It felt good having this woman here with him. He thought of telling her that, but chose to remain silent for now. That might be enough to start trouble. He had no idea how sensitive she might become if he brought them as a couple up. It didn't feel like time to start hashing all of their problems again, but they couldn't keep delaying all the things that lay before them. He simply smiled at her, and was gratified that she returned it easily.

"We have been walking about an hour, have we not?" Rhiannon knew it had actually been a bit longer because of where the sun now seemed to be, though obscured by the height of the trees.Dagonet nodded. "We have had to come farther than we normally would because so much was destroyed in the battle."

"Ah, of course. I had noticed, but for some reason didn't really think about it." She answered.

"Are you so anxious to be done with our day together?" Dagonet teased, glancing sideways at her.

Rhiannon only smiled as she looked down at her boots. She fidgeted only a moment. She did the only thing that could get her out of being shy at his question and changed the subject. "Water?" She asked, politely, as she slipped her pack off, and he did the same.

He nodded his head, and she dug out the water skin. She began to hand it to him, but he insisted that she drink first. Rather than argue, she took a couple of good long drinks, and then handed it over to him. Turning his head upward, he drank as she had before returning it.A sort of awkward silence settled over them. Rhiannon wished that her hair was down so she could hide under it. Instead she looked at the ground again, studying the tips of her boots that she had turned up for examination. All lay quiet between them for long minutes. Dagonet was the one whofinally spoke.

"There is a brook just on the other side of the clearing, and there we will find an abundance of mint, aloe, fern and mandrake. I will take you to gather lavender afterwards. There are other things we will find as well, so do not fear about going back empty handed. Things like apple tree bark, rosemary, and basil, as well as all lemon herbs can be found at the fort easily enough so do not worry over those."

Rhiannon listened carefully and wondered if so much could have been gathered at the fort today and set to dry, why had they come out here instead? She did not mind it, and was happy they were here, but wondered if Dagonet might not have a motive with this excursion. She supposed that if she wanted to know, she could always ask.

"Is there something you would like to speak to me about? You seem as though there is something bearing upon you."

Dagonet looked at her, not surprised in the least that she had picked that up from him. He had been thinking all morning of the things he needed to talk over with her.

"There are some things we _do_ need to talk about." He told her. He spoke softly but sternly as was his way. She only nodded in response. He was unsure how to begin and decided to try to throw her off balance a little for fun.

"So, first thing, you have seen me in the all-together, and even washed me?"

Rhiannon pursed her lips to try to keep from smiling, but even had she succeeded, her sparkling golden eyes would have told on her. She cut her eyes over to him, and waited before answering. She knew that he knew that already. He had to of. She had taken care of him for weeks, and she couldn't have done it with him clothed for the Gods' sakes. He was waiting, looking amused. She turned her head to face him.

"You know I did." She answered him, lifting her chin in physical answer to his challenge. Her mouth still fought her smile. Dagonet couldn't help laughing. She was such a fiery, tempting, unusual, creature, and she tickled him. She smiled at last and laughed softly with him. He still hadn't thrown her as he had hoped though. One more try.

Dagonet slid an arm behind her and around her waist drawing her closer, and as he turned into her, he whispered in her ear, "If you have seen me unclothed, is it not only fair that I should see you as well?"

Rhiannon's eyes shot wide open at his question, and at the feel of his mouth so near her again. Tasting him only the night before had only made the fire in her worse, and now she was left momentarily confused.

"Well?" He prodded gently.

Rhiannon noted the smile he wore, and tried to scowl, but found that she could only smile like some laughing idiot today.

"_You_ were wounded and I had to care for you." She answered in defense.

Dagonet just laughed again. He couldn't remember the last time that he had laughed so much. "And what did you think, or do you often see men naked?"

Rhiannon couldn't decide whether to glare or laugh, and came off with an interesting combination of the two.

"My Lord Knight, I have very rarely seen naked men, and never have I before seen one that was in the state of undress that you were."

"I thought we were beyond titles." Dagonet answered amused.

Rhiannon was hatefully befuddled. She was usually never at a loss for words, but he had managed to confuse her. She looked up at the sky because she felt it was better than gaping at the infuriating man like the moron she felt she was fast becoming. Dagonet read her emotions clearly on her expressive features and loved it. He had managed to do as he had intended. Amused triumph gave way as a question presented itself. _Now what to do?_

Without a second thought Dagonet hauled her into his lap. Her eyes had grown delightfully wide as she had wrapped her arms around his neck. Her soft bottom cradled in his lap was wonderful.

"How do you feel about weddings?"

Dagonet's question was straightforward, and he was smiling a little, but Rhiannon felt the tension in his arms that tightened around her. '_Is it possible that he is nervous?' _What could she say? She was usually not one for lying, so she decided to be painfully honest. That seemed like the best course that either of them could take for straightening this whole muddled situation out. There was so much that she needed to say to him. Her honesty lent her words strength as she spoke, though she looked away from him. She felt that his eyes would have taken her courage.

"When I first saw you that day at Marius' home, I felt something come over me that I have never felt in my life. I just couldn't take my eyes off of you." Rhiannon's eyes had gone far away, and she paused a moment.

"I...I am not sure I have ever seen anything before that took my breath away as you did. You still do every time that I look at you." Rhiannon smiled gently, but it quickly faded. "When the men brought you back off the lake that day...I thought that you were dead."

Dagonet, who was listening to her candid confessions, saw tears pool in her eyes and spill over before the back of her hand wiped them hastily and roughly away. Her lips were trembling, and the urge to kiss her pain away was terrible. He would have if he hadn't been afraid that she would stop talking. He_ needed_ to hear this. He settled with hugging her nearer his chest. So much hurt, and all for him. He had no words for what that made him feel.

"I went to you, and you weren't dead...but there was so little life left in you, and there were broken arrows..." Rhiannon stopped speaking to try to gain more control of herself before she broke into sobs. Her tear blinded eyes stared blankly at the trees that bordered the little break in the forest. The deep breath she took to center herself felt raw in her knotted chest. She continued on almost brokenly...

"I would not even think that you could die..._I would not let you_, and because you _did_ live, they let me take charge of you. No one else would. I willed you to live with every bit of stubbornness that I possess, and I possess a great deal of it I assure you." A humorless laugh shook her briefly, as again she paused to seek out control.

"The ride back to the Wall was the longest it seemed I had ever endured. I just knew that all that jostling was going to finish what the Saxons had started. I cursed all the way there. Then when finally we arrived..." She shook her head and closed her eyes only a second ",...then the fever took you, and I expected it, but it was so extreme. Touching your skin was akin to touching a fire, but the worst was having to finish digging the arrow out of your chest. I prayed you would not bleed to death, and it was a wonder that you had not died with it in you for that long, but I hadn't dared take it out in that filthy cart. It was so close to your heart..." Rhiannon's voice faded again as she lost herself in the pained remembrance that was not so long past. Her hesitance was not long, though she still fought her tears and emotions valiantly.

"Saxons came, and people began to evacuate, and they wanted to take you, but I would not let them, and Arthur stood by me. I did not know what might happen, and I have never before seen a battle, let alone been in the midst of one, but if they had moved you, you would have died without question.

There was a pause as Rhiannon took another breath, and momentarily lost herself in her recollections. When she spoke again, it was with a flat, dead voice.

Had the Saxons triumphed, or had they even attempted entering the room during the battle, my knife lay ready to kill you and I both." She stopped again, and Dagonet sat in stunned silence. He did not doubt the truth of her words, and his admiration for her grew as he considered what she would have done . Would she have had the courage? Probably. Suicides were often looked on as honorable in such cases, and had she killed him, there would have been more honor for him, than if the Saxons had finished him.Still, he did not dare speak, and after what seemed like an eternity, she again took up her tale.

"Finally it was over. It was a terrible battle that carried an equally terrible cost for your brothers, Tristan and Lancelot. Gawain was wounded by an arrow pretty badly, but he is strong like you." She smiled only a second, and Dagonet squeezed her reassuringly. His heart was deeply touched.

"I did the best I could, and was finally rewarded when consciousness began to break through all the sickness, and you would stir, even if it were only seconds. At least life was coming back to you.During that time I would let no one touch you, and while it might be unseemly for a woman to care for a nude man she is not wed to, it was the only way. With your fever, I was forever bathing you, and...caring for your needs."

'_Caring for his needs..._' That unmanned him a little. He knew precisely what she meant by that, and he hated the thought of her cleansing him of piss and worse than that as one would a baby. A frown creased his face, but Rhiannon did not see it because she still stared beyond him.

"You were so ill...I worried and could barely sleep...I could not eat anymore without retching. I thought that if you died I might die as well. Everyday that I was with you I found myself caring about you more and more. I knew that you were a good man from the things that people would tell me, and I had seen you with Lucan and the way that you cared for him. Your heart is such a good one and I could not help but admire you. I thought about you, and wondered about you...I wanted to talk to you, and know you, and yet I already felt as though I did know you." She shook herself. "That sounds foolish doesn't it?" She finally turned her head to look at him, curious about what reception she was going to get after all that she had confessed. Dagonet's eyes were soft as he studied her, and he touched her cheek tenderly.

"You have endured much for me." He told her, awed by the power of her feelings, and commitment for him that were becoming increasingly apparent.

"It was as much for me as it was for you I think." She answered truthfully. "You drew me in a way that I have never experienced before, and I could not let that go. I had to know what it was that intrigued me and pulled me to you."

"Would you not have done as much for someone else in my place?" Dagonet asked, though he was positive that she would have. He already knew her heart to be a gentle one.

" I believe so, but it meant so much more to me that it was you. I did not even know you, but you felt..._necessary._

Dagonet warmed at her words. She had turned from him, and he could feel that her body had grown taut.

Dagonet gazed at the profile of her face as she had yet to look at him. The morning light gave its grace to them as they sat there in warm silence for awhile.

Rhiannon did not believe what she had just divulged to him. The feeling of needing him was not foreign to her, but she had not planned to get him in the woods and begin confessing that she was besotted with him_. 'What can he possibly think of me now? He is experienced with women and I must look like a fool.'_

Dagonet could see that her mind was hard at work, and she would still not look at him. He decided to pursue their conversation now, no matter the risks.

"You still have not answered my question?" He reminded softly and conversationally.

Rhiannon did turn to him then, slightly puzzled looking.

She raised an eyebrow in question.

"I asked you what you think of weddings...especially ones that concern both of us I might add."

"Oh...yes, I did not answer that did I? I was going to say that...I think I would be...I would be fortunate to marry a man such as you." She was smiling, but had looked away before she had finished speaking.

"Will you say that as you look at me?"

Rhiannon looked to Dagonet and realized that he wanted very much to have her approval. That caught her quite off guard, and filled her with a sweet warmth. _' He **does** care for me...'_

Rhiannon cradled Dagonet's face in her hands, and leaned her forehead against his for a moment. She gazed deeply into his dark eyes only a moment before leaning back to answer him once and for all on this matter.

"You are exactly the sort of man I had always dreamed of marrying." Rhiannon's eyes were sincere as was her soft voice.

The corner of Dagonet's mouth lifted in a smile. This was going far better than he could have hoped for.

"Do you wish to marry me?" Dagonet pursued because there was much left unsaid with her answer.

"I do wish it."

The answer had scarcely left her mouth before Dagonet covered it with his own, kissing her with reverence and depth.Rhiannon had been startled at first but soon melted in his treasured embrace, loving him with her lips and tongue as he did her. His arms had gathered her so tightly against him that she wondered that she could even breath at all. She smiled happily as they kissed, unable to repress her rapture. Dagonet felt the smile, and rejoiced that she was his, _willingly_ his.The gloom and confusion of the last week melted away for both of them.

Breaking the kiss, Dagonet looked at her face and saw both the wonder and...something else...something he would not dare to name though he wanted to. The emotion he saw in her was deep and made his chest constrict so that he felt he could not breathe.

"I asked you last night if perhaps I was not what you wanted for a husband...?"

Rhiannon heard the halting question and recalled how insulting it had sounded when he had first said it, but now he only sounded vulnerable. After all she had told him, he still was not sure...she wondered what more she might say to convince him. Then it came to her.

Rhiannon raised a hand to his cheek and rubbed the stubbled skin gently. Her lips were tentative at first as she initiated the kiss, but her passion built quickly in her and his hadas well. Their kisses were so powerful, and deep, and her body spoke a language all its own. She pressed her breasts purposefully against him, and caressed his neck, thick as warrior's were wont to be. One of his hands moved up to caress a breast firmly, and his mouth broke from hers to suckle at her exposed neck. Dagonet's other hand gripped one cheek solidly. Rhiannon gasped at the pleasure of his attentions and leaned her head a little to lick at his ear lobe. She heard him moan in pleasure, and suddenly, in a whirlwind of movement,they were no longer sitting, but lying on the soft, grassy carpet, his weight heavy on her.

She knew vaguely that this should not be happening according to the standards that she had been taught, but she could not help the starvation that this man made her feel. That was the only thing that was real to her and she gave into it without any further doubt.

Her legs had instinctively opened to Dagonet when he had laid her down. Now she wrapped them around his middle, as he licked and suckled down the length of her throat. His fingers had navigated their way through her tunic laces deftly, and now were alternately rubbing, and pinching lightly at her nipples through her blouse. It impassioned her and made her thrust her heavy breasts upward into his hands. Rhiannon jolted as she felt Dagonet's hand skim her bare belly as he lifted her blouse. Her nipples hardened even more and grew painful. Dagonet looked at her with a slow smile full of heat when he heard her moan for him. Raising her blouse more, he finally exposed her to her bodice. _'So many damn clothes...' _

The thin bodice encased her breasts but the tops were exposed and Dagonet was dying for a taste of her, and the sight of her that no other man would, or couldhave. He had imagined her body often and would not be put off. He began desperately untying the front laces of her undergarment while she quivered beneath him.

"_Dagonet..."_

The breathy way that she moaned his name, made his stomach clench into a knot. His erection was so hard that he felt he might kill someone if he did not make love to her, despite his intentions to go more slowly with her. His body was being unforgiving and ungovernable. Nothing in his life felt as good as she did, soft and achingly luscious beneath him.Dagonet looked into her hazy eyes, and saw all of her desire for him, just as he could feel it radiating from her body.

Without a word, he lowered his gaze to her exposed breasts. They were snowy like the rest of her, the nipples large and deeply shaded pink. They were hard and beckoned to him for attention. She was perfect.Dagonet lowered his head slowly and took one taut nipple into his hot mouth, as Rhiannon cried out, and ground heatedly into him. Even through their garments, he was so hard that she could feel her movements bruising her soft flesh, but she did not care. Her body was in need of his, and she was determined that if she could not convince Dagonet of her feelings for him with her words, then she would do so with her body.She was flooded with moisture, and burned. Her body did indeed speak volumes as she writhed and clutched at the man atop her. Dagonet laved her nipple and nibbled at it carefully, as his other hand explored her belly to the edge of her breeches. He intended that those would not remain on her long. He was fully determined that he would make her his and soon. Rhiannon was of the same mind and gave of herself willingly. Neither imagined the surprise that lay in store for them in the following moments.

"So this is where you've been...with this_ Roman_ bitch who is obviously in heat."

Dagonet jerked upward, and spun his back to Rhiannon to hide her partly uncovered body. Rhiannon struggled upward in surprise as she yanked her shirt down. She looked around Dagonet to see who had spat those hate filled words. There, at the opposite end of the clearing, stood a woman that Rhiannon clearly remembered from the tavern. Her hands rested on her hips in an angry attitude, and she glared at Dagonet with pure venom.

Dagonet stood from his kneeling position to confront the woman head on. Before he had time to speak, the woman,whose name Rhiannon recalled as Aria, said one last thing before turning on her heel and stomping away to the fortress...

"You are _my_ lover. I will permit none else to have you. Tell your little foreign dog that."

With that, the slender woman, grown ugly with too many years of her profession and bad health, was gone. Rhiannon stared in shocked anger where the woman had stood.

_I want to aplogize for this chapter taking so long. First, it was one that I had been thinking about for awhile, and I wanted it to be just right. In the second place, my computer has been down for awhile, so that delayed me as well. I thank everyone for reading and reviewing. Please keep it up. I love hearing all the comments. There ought to be some interesting things happening in the next chapter..._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"**Insecurities"**

Dagonet couldn't believe the new problem that he now faced. Just when things were finally going down the path that they needed to be between he and Rhiannon, _this_ had to happen. What would Rhiannon think of him in the face of this accusation? Damn that Aria! She would truly be a fortunate woman if he didn't strangle her the next time they met.

Dag could hear Rhiannon moving behind him, and he turned to find her risen, and just beginning to lace her tunic back into place. She had one eyebrow cocked inquiringly at him, but she didn't appear angry. Her fingers worked at the laces while her eyes stayed on him awaiting whatever it was that he might have to say about this. He was wary of her calm, but relieved that she was still anyway.

"Rhiannon...", Dagonet shook his head in disgust. "I will take care of this problem when we return. We can now if you like..."

"Is anything that she said at all true?" Rhiannon's voice gave nothing away, but her tone was no-nonsense. Dagonet was glad that she had cut him off, because he knew that he would have soon been babbling. His balance had been slightly thrown off by all of this. He was certainly a man of solid speech, and never wasted his words, but for once, he couldn't seem to force his words into the things he needed to say, and she was saving him the confusion, as well as the embarrassment. He was completely bewildered by Aria's little stunt.

"No. She is a...prostitute." Dagonet had given pause before using the cruder name for Aria that had come to his tongue. "We are not lovers, nor have we been, unless it is taken into account that I have paid her before for her services, as I have others. I do not feel that it makes those women my lovers. I have bought their services as have many."

"There have been no promises of any kind between you?"

Rhiannon waited somewhat tensely for Dagonet's answer.

She believed every word that Dagonet was telling her, but she wanted all the facts that could be had about this before she began dealing with it. She had already made too many assumptions that had left her feeling like a jackass. Still, she was having the worst time making her mind sit still and focus, even in this serious situation. Abrupt, and rude as Aria's intrusion upon them had been, she still burned for Dagonet's body, and she had been so close to having it. A hot blush slammed across her face, turning even her ears red when she thought about what it was that they had been doing on the ground only moments before. The longing that her vision inspired, just for the power of his nearness and her need for him to be as close to her as possible, made her feel momentarily maddened. She felt a great and terrible need to immerse herself with him. There was a demand to merge with him in any way that she could. The physical way was the most obvious means available.

Dagonet wanted to smile, because her thoughts were perceptible to him in the most basic way. He could see a measured restraint in her body and correctly read it as her way of reigning in her want to pick up where they had been interrupted. It gratified him. Perhaps then, she trusted him yet, and _that_ Aria with her sickeningly absurd speech would not create a new barrier between he and his strange little healer. This woman of his was a woman no doubt, but so untried in some of her ways, that he couldn't help but want to protect her, and somehow keep her unspoiled. He had seen ruin at it's worst, and while her character being disillusioned would hardly measure as dire in the larger scheme to most, the idea seemed disastrous to him. His heart felt as though it were physically opening to Rhiannon inside of his chest. His words were a mirror of the warmth that flowed through him.

"My love, there were no promises." When the endearment left Dagonet's mouth he nearly failed to notice it because it was spoken so truly. Rhiannon's eyebrows that had shot up at his words were what jolted him. He had been through this with himself over and over again, when deep down he knew that he had to be falling in love with her, if he was not totally in love with her already. Dagonet read the question in her alert, but soft expression and went the short distance to her. Looking down into the softened face that no longer questioned but merely studied him in silent affection made whatever words he might have said forgotten. His thoughts had all fled save one, and that was the singular knowledge that the woman he looked at was his and his alone. It took his breath away. For long moments he was content just to look upon her, to acknowledge the way that she knowingly, and unknowingly made visible her feelings for him. He could hardly believe that the warm passion and enamored expression that she wore was for him and not some other man. There also came the dawning knowledge of what he needed to say to her. She had after all bared her heart to him, and there was indeed much that he wished to say to his bride to be. So many things that he needed to ask.

"Come, the brook is just outside the trees. While we work, I would like for us to talk." Dagonet's voice was soft as he drew near her face to brush his lips over her forehead, his hands cradling her face tenderly. He did not dare to try to kiss her lips so briefly, though he was tempted sorely when he felt the light pressure of her hands on his forearms.

Rhiannon felt somewhat faint and electrified all at once when Dagonet drew so near to her. He overwhelmed all of her senses completely, but she accepted the sweet gesture without any true attempt to prolong the contact. She very much wished to hear what he had to say to her, despite her body's complaints. Stepping carefully so as not to betray her turmoil with clumsiness, she stepped back and picked her pack up, slinging it over her shoulders once more. Dagonet did the same with his own. He took notice of her continued measured movements with a hidden smile, before straightening, and offering Rhiannon his hand. With an easy smile that displayed healthy, if somewhat large teeth, she accepted and they moved through the warm clearing to the shade of the trees, and into them. The brook was clearly audible now, though Rhiannon had heard it from the clearing as well. Judging by the noise it made, it was quite large. Holding tightly to Dagonet's hand, she was soon in view of it, and found that she had been accurate in her guess. The whole forest surrounding them had a wonderful mossy; the water running through it, and tumbling down its short waterfalls made Rhiannon's heart well with the beauty of it. Mint grew in plentiful mass, as did the mandrake nearby. Dagonet released Rhiannon's hand, and she reached to take her pack off. Kneeling, she opened the bag and took out large bundles of fabric. Unrolling several rags from the bundle, she went wordlessly to the slight bank, and bent to wet them. Rhiannon had heard Dagonet move once, and she knew that he had taken his pack off as well. She also knew that he now watched her. She could feel his eyes upon her.

"How are you faring?" She asked lightly without turning from her task.

"I am fine." Dagonet answered easily. She had not hovered over him as Galahad had predicted to him earlier, nor even as _he_ thought that she would. Rhiannon had let him go now for hours without asking after his health. He had wondered how long she would hold out, and frankly she had surprised him. He was however right in imagining that it might have been itching on her tongue to ask. She had denied herself the impulse though, because she rightly felt that she was being scrutinized about the matter. Had she been completely honest with herself she would have found that she also did not want to discourage them from having a day alone together. In the hours since they had parted the night before, her thoughts had been crammed full of dreams and all sorts of wonderful fantasies about the two of them, but none were nearly as good as the reality was turning out to be. She had been selfish despite his healing body and she was completely aware of her motives, but she also knew that as a trained warrior, he knew his limits. Now she waited while her mind teemed with the all the things that had happened between them in these woods, not to mention Aria's intrusion. She very much wanted to hear what Dagonet had to say to her, her heart clenching as she remembered what he had called her_. My love._ Straightening, she returned to her pack with her eyes deliberately set on it, to retrieve her boline for harvesting. Unwrapping it, the white handled knife settled perfectly into her hand, the crescent blade reflected the surrounding green. She also retrieved a bundle of dry rags, and walked the short steps to the mint, growing in fragrant mass. She settled her behind gingerly on the spongy moss, and spread one of the dry rags next to her, the wet cloth laid aside. Silently she began to cut away the mint in careful slices, and laid it on the material.

Dagonet watched her, her head bent at her work, her eyes avoiding him so that she could hide her thoughts. He suddenly wished that her hair were not restrained. He adored her curls, and wanted nothing more than to tangle his hands in them. His very scarred hands. He turned them palm up in contemplation. They were so rough that it suddenly seemed wrong to touch her pale, soft skin with them_. ' How must they feel to her?' _He looked up to find her turning her head toward him.

"Did you not say that you had something you wished to say to me?"

Rhiannon was smiling as she asked but the sense of impatience was all around her. He did not blame her, and clearly remembered what it felt like to wait when her voice had paused, as she opened herself to him, telling him such sweet, wonderful things. Unimaginable things. The moments of quiet had been hard to bear.

Stepping forward, he settled on the ground beside her. He pointed to the moist rags on the other side of her, and she handed him one wordlessly. Settling it, he began to extract another patch of mint by the roots, preparing them for careful bundles. When he did speak his tone was an exacting one.

"Tell me if there is anything more that you wish to know about Aria. The time for misunderstandings between us is done. As my wife, I will expect you to come to me when you find that something is amiss. _I refuse to tolerate your pouting. _Do you understand?"

Rhiannon sat back and just looked at him for a moment considering. "I understand.", She answered finally, with a slight nod of her head. She had noted the stern tone he had taken with her, and though she knew he fully meant every word that he had just spoken to her, his dark eyes had sparkled in good humor at the last.

"Good. Now, as I asked before - Is there anything more that you would know about Aria?"

"Do you have any idea what might have caused her to behave in such a way?"

Dagonet took some time to think it over, Rhiannon's eyes on him, her hands having temporarily abandoned their work. "I have done nothing to cause her to believe that I am committed to her in any way."

Short and to the point, Rhiannon thought to herself with a slight smile. "How often did you seek her out?"

"I did buy her services more than any other whore, but it was not regularly. I was not buying any of them for companionship."

Rhiannon admired that he would be so candid about the matter, when really, even had Aria been his confirmed mistress, he owed her no explanation. That was a man's right, and she knew it. His eyes had a touch of steel in them now , but she did not know if it was due to her questions, or that audacious prostitute laying claim to him. Still, her husband to be was not being cold, despite the hardness of his eyes. His mouth remained soft, and she had a longing to kiss his lips... to be once more flooded with the taste and the smell of him. The thought alone brought a wave of pleasure to her, but she held still. They had both come into the woods today with a purpose, herbs and coupling not truly among them. This was all about learning.

"Perhaps that is all it is then." She replied, but Dagonet heard something that she was not saying in the way her sentence dropped.

"Whatever you have on your mind, say it." He ordered firmly.

"After we are wed... will you..."

"No." He answered, correctly reading her thoughts. "I do not seek out any other woman now and I will not then. I seem to be busy enough with you.", Dagonet told her with wry humor. Rhiannon had smiled blandly, and he realized that she was worried. "I will never search out any woman but you, as long as you do not forsake being my wife all together. Some women do not enjoy what goes on between a man and a woman, and they give it up completely. That is hardly fair to the man. Wouldn't you agree?"

Rhiannon nodded, though the continued candor was taking a turn that she feared would soon embarrass her. Taking a moment to think of a careful reply, she turned completely sober, and forward. If he was soon to be her husband, he was right that there should be no barriers between them made of words spoken or otherwise.

" I do not think that I will dislike what will go on between us. I do not dislike what has happened so far..." Her words dropped off, her thoughts sounding more juvenile to her ears than they had in her head.

Dagonet smiled at her then, and drew her to him with one strong arm that he had slipped behind her. " We need to talk about other aspects of our marriage, and then we will discuss this at more length... I _am_ pleased that you take to loving so well." Rhiannon nodded her head, his husky voice having sent another jolt through her. He was all but purring at her in his low voice so close to her. Then in his abrupt way, Dagonet changed the subject.

"Weddings in the Roman sense mean nothing to me. I am Pagan, and Christian beliefs are worthless to me. While I have yet to hear anything about how this wedding will be done, I am sure that your uncle being who he is, will want a Roman wedding for you. If for no other reason, I believe he would insist on it just to seal it more in his mind as permanent. He wants this marriage between us to be a means of keeping you out of Rome for the rest of your life, but most certainly for the rest of his. The terms were that I would marry you, he receives your land, and you are not killed in the getting of this land." Rhiannon's eyes grew large and round with alarm, yet she remained silent for him to continue.

"He intended to cast you into the sea when he departed with you, but he saw an opportunity to get this piece of land without your blood on his hands. He took it, and that tells me that he has mercy despite seeming ruthless. He found a way to spare you. He told me that you had denied him the property that he is after, and that it means much to you. I am sorry that you will lose it, but in the end it was the difference between living and dying for something that he would have gotten no matter what your decision would have been. I told him that I would wed you, and I still believe that being my wife has to be better than being dead." He was going to go on, but the expression on her face was making him curious. Her eyes had narrowed and she had leaned forward minutely with a cock of her head when he had mentioned the importance of her prior home to her. She had looked confused, not to mention suspicious, and he wanted to hear why.

"My uncle has never asked me for that property. It is in an isolated place, a place where those who are exiled are often sent. It has no worth to him whatsoever. The house that stands there, despite my pitiful attempts, is in disrepair. It had been abandoned for many years. I lived out my own personal exile there." Rhiannon's words and face were thoughtful as she explained these things.

"Why would the senator lie about these things?"

"I cannot say. Before now, I have never known him to be at all interested in the little estate, except in the time that he wanted me to move into it after the deaths of my parents."

Dagonet stopped to consider this a moment. It wasn't making sense, and he began to realize that the Roman senator was hiding something from at least one of them, if not both. It didn't seem overly important but, perhaps that was worth taking to the reclusive Volumnius's door. He felt Rhiannon's eyes on him, and he met them once more admiring the golden beauty of them. She was waiting for him to go on.

"It really doesn't matter. The marriage has been arranged as you know, and will take place as soon as my recovery is complete. I do not believe that leaves us much time to become acquainted, and that is partly why I chose to be alone with you today, in a place that I believed we would be uninterrupted." He scowled as he thought for a second of Aria, and noted that Rhiannon smiled a slight, thin smile. Her eyes had turned cold at the mention of the intrusion, and he could see her anger was growing. In fact, she was terribly angry, but had been truthful when she had said she was not angered with him. The look faded from her as quickly as it had begun, and Dagonet was relieved when it was gone. That look didn't suit her. It was vicious. He knew that he had just seen the fighting side of her, her pride, and the side that would have killed them had the Saxons entered into his chamber. She might not have been a warrior, but that didn't mean that she wasn't a fighter.

"I wanted to have time to speak with you, to talk over the many things that have happened, so that you might understand. I should have come to you before last night. I should never have allowed the silence to go on for so long between us." Dagonet took one of her hands into both of his and caressed it, rubbing the pads of his thumbs over the back of her hand. His other hand stroked down the sides of her ribs as he still held her."I did not agree to wed you just to save you, though that would have been motivation enough for what you have given to me. I want you. Since my eyes first fell upon you I have been drawn by you... Since I awoke and found that you had devoted yourself to me, I have wanted you always in my sight. I cannot look at you enough, hear your voice enough, or touch you enough. I feel certain that if we became lovers, I would have you with child before we could be wed, no matter how soon that might be." Dagonet's blunt words caused Rhiannon to gasp and straighten her body rigidly. He smiled down into her shocked face. Releasing her hand, he tightened his arm that lay around her, and touched her chin gently. "Does that surprise you that I would keep you so much in my bed?" Rhiannon's body relaxed as an intriguing smile curved her lips. Perhaps she should have been scandalized but she was not, nor did she have any desire to pretend to be. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. She had been very close to becoming his lover only a short walk from where they sat, and she had invited him to her only the night before. A pleasurable, sensuous weight settled into her belly.

" I should have gone slower with you. Last night when I came to you, I was angry. I had missed you, and wanted to see you, but I had suffered from your indifference. I wanted you to feel what I had felt all week. There had been no peace from you, and even my dreams were filled with you. You seemed to want nothing to do with me, and all I could think was that you did not wish to wed me. I did not fault you for that, only your silence." Dagonet saw the regret in her expression, and knowingly, though reluctantly admitted to himself finally that he loved her. Her arms slid around him, and she held him in a tight embrace. He returned the gesture, and felt gratitude to the Gods that Rhiannon was his. He still had trouble absorbing that new fact of his life. He let the sensation of loving someone sweep over him as he held to her, life and a new way of living it washing over him in wave after wave. Rhiannon had not been able to resist having him so close to her and was pressing tender kisses against his neck. She heard the gentle groan in his throat, and raised her face once more to look at him, her countenance once of satisfaction and contentment. His next words were soft and spoken in good humor. "I should not have let things get so carried away as they did, and I vowed to take it easier with you. The next thing I knew, I was trying to make love to you in the grass." Dagonet smiled as he hugged her to him with joy, his tone growing purposeful once more as something he needed to say nagged at him. " I want to go far more slowly, and teach you things...let you learn for yourself what is meant to happen between us...you are so innocent."

Rhiannon really did not care for his choice of words, because she had grown tired of being so entirely innocent. It was a word that suited her in many ways though not all, but it was something she did not wish to be. There had been urges in her before that she had vaguely realized, but she had never in her life lusted after anyone. Now it was all-consuming, unshakeable, and it made her feel weary. She wondered if her body would quiet after they had made love, and she had convinced herself that it would. The thought of it had absorbed her, and seemed like the most natural thing in the world for her to do. If anyone had told her before that she would want nothing more one day than to roll naked in a forest clearing, coupling with a man she had only known for three days... well, she honestly didn't know if she would have laughed or been offended. Now she laughed inwardly at it, even scoffing at herself. She decided that she would have laughed then too. It was too delicious of an idea. Quiet settled over them as they sat holding each other.

" Why have you not been wed before? Pairing is sacred to Pagans. My mother taught me that. Why have you no wife, or at least a companion?" Rhiannon's voice was gentle as she turned her large eyes upward to his.

"There has been no woman that suited me." Dagonet answered simply, though he knew the other half of the truth to be that he had also never been sought out by a woman who cared for him. He was admiring Rhiannon's small, pink lips and found himself leaning into them for a taste before he really knew that he had done it. It was a slow, gentle kiss with underlying tension that he sought to keep in check. That was what made him pull back, though her mouth entreated him in her guileless way. "You forget that your Pagan beliefs are different from mine. As far as my beliefs and those of my people , though we do celebrate joining or wedding, if I had taken you in the forest clearing with the intentions of uniting us, as far as I and my Gods are concerned, that would make you mine."

"My teachings of Paganism are not so different in that way then. You will find that my beliefs are a combination of both Christianity and Paganism, unlikely as that may sound."

Dagonet smiled at the unexpected pairing in Rhiannon's faith. "How did you manage to be raised as a Roman and believe in Pagan Gods?"

" You might also recall hearing that I was exiled at one point? My Uncle wanted me out of Rome so an important family could live in the house I had lived in with my parents. He mentioned that they might resort to murder to get it, and if that was the case, I decided that it was definitely worth more to them than it was to me. I only discovered later when I wasn't permitted entrance into the city, that I had been exiled, and my religion was very much a part of the reason. Murrelus brought my name before the senate as an eccentric, and they agreed that while I was harmless, their city was no place for me. It was good for me in many ways though. I enjoyed the solitude, and it was necessary that I learned how to hunt. I can hunt fairly well now. My nearest neighbor was an old woman who had been exiled years before, and lived alone. She was thought to be a strega, and had been banished rather than killed, because she too had powerful relatives in the senate. She taught me to garden, showed me herbs, and how to use them. We spent a great deal of time together, and she taught me much about how to heal. It is because of her that you are alive now."

"Strega... witch." Dagonet muttered darkly.

"We are not going to get much done today are we?" Rhiannon really didn't look sorry about it, as she gave him a sweet smile, ignoring the obvious suspicion he held for her old friend.

"I think that we have accomplished much already," Dagonet answered, ", though there is still far more. Do you understand what it means that I am a Knight?"

Rhiannon's smile left her as her mind took the serious turn of their conversation. "I do."

Dagonet nodded, and knew by the joyless expression Rhiannon wore, that she did indeed understand. Still, it was necessary to go on just a little farther. He had to make her understand the duality of his nature completely. "I have killed many people, just as I have healed many with these same hands." As he spoke, he released her to hold his hands in display before her, palms up. "I have killed far more than I will ever heal. You cannot imagine the things I have done to others with these hands."

Rhiannon noted the lack of regret in his voice, and his face. This was simply a fact for him, who he was, and what he had done. What he would certainly do again if faced with a battle. For some time she had mulled over the same facts that he now presented her with, and while the amounts of life he had taken so deftly made her mind reel, she had already accepted all that he now spoke of. He was a Knight, a warrior, and killing was what he had been trained to do. It did not make her love him less. Her heart quickened almost painfully on her last thought, her eyes tell-tale as she averted them. " I know who you are, what you do, and what you have done. They are not crimes in my eyes. I accept you for who you are, and I..."

She couldn't say it, she just couldn't. The last two words were so simple, and yet they choked her. Her insecurities had taken root deeply. Instead she raised her face to his and kissed him with quiet passion and cherishing. It was singular, and simple in its feeling. He put his arms around her once more in a tight embrace that left her breathless. Rhiannon broke the kiss to look into Dagonet's face. He had become very still, and she found him watching her intently, thoughtfully, and searchingly.

"What is it?" Rhiannon asked as she held him.

"Is this really what you want?" Dagonet was suddenly resigned.

"You ask me this after all that I have confessed to you, after what nearly took place both last night and this morning?" The disbelief was clear in her words.

Dagonet shook his head slightly, as he dropped his arms from her. " I ask because I am what I am, and nothing will ever change that. I ask also because I am not a young man, and there are others who could give you so much more than I can. Whether Volumnius has left us with a choice or not is hardly the point. I have to know why youwant _me_."

" I thought that I had made that clear." Rhiannon answered simply. "Why is it so hard to imagine that I would be so drawn to you?"

" I have been alone throughout most of my life... even surrounded by people... there are so few who understand me. Women are never drawn to me as they are to other men."

" Oh, I hardly think that you can lay claim to that after this morning." Rhiannon answered in half jest making a clear reference not only to herself, but the encounter with Aria as well.Only the tiniest of smiles touched Dagonet's lips and then was gone. Rhiannon took a deep breath and began again in a tone of submission. " Dag, I have told you the things that are in my heart. I am drawn to you in a way that is inexplicable to me, and in a way that I have never been drawn to any other. I have a need for you and a wanting that is constant even when I am with you." A sigh escaped her. " I have told you that I want to be your wife, I want to..." She wanted to tell him that she would love him, that she would give her life over to him if that was necessary. It didn't seem such a terrible thing to belong to a man like Dagonet, and that was all she wanted for both of them. Love and devotion. "I don't know what more I can say to you. You have yet to tell me why it is that you want me. Why you truly want me."

He knew what he wanted to say, and even needed to say, yet he could not. His heart had quickened over her words. She was a living, breathing dream to him. Endless possibilities of happiness._ 'She could break me.'_ He thought, and far more easily than he wanted to admit. What kind of a man was he, he wondered, that after all she had offered him, all that she had suffered, he could not offer her his heart in words. He stared off to some unseen spot just across the wide brook, as the silence between them grew. Rhiannon's shoulders slumped, as she pressed her lips together in a gesture of melancholy acceptance, unseen except by the birds that watched, and the Earth that intently listened, and knew her heart. _'What did I expect? Confessions of great love?'_

She mocked herself, and pushing herself low on her feet, began to gather the pitiful harvest of mint. Gathering herbs was usually a soulful kind of an experience for her, and she felt a great connection to green and growing things, but her mood was overcast as she turned over all of Dagonet's words in her mind. She began to feel the need to be alone so that she might think and process all that had happened. Things always moved by such large increments between them, and today was not an exception. She was not sad, or angry, but just feeling...tired. There had been so many good things that had been said and expressed, but a very large silence was alive and well between them. _'Does he not believe me?'_

Dagonet turned to see her easily, and loosely wrapping mint, and then wiping her blade clean. He watched her gather all the rags, and dry or wet, she stuffed them in her pack carelessly. She was careful however about placing the mint on the top. He waited, wondering if she was leaving without him. Her face was expressionless, though her eyes looked weary to him. Finally she stood, and looked at him. " I think we have done all we can for today. Let's return." Watching her just a minute more, he hefted his big frame off the bank, and despite the hunger that gnawed for food, and Rhiannon's heart as well as her full body, he simply gathered his pack in one swift motion. She was right, and once more, she had given him an easy way out of an awkward, and difficult situation. He also knew that she had done so on purpose and it was as much for herself as for him. They stood there, faced off and waited, and when nothing filled that waiting, she turned and took the first steps, though they were not fast ones. Rhiannon was in no hurry because there was nothing to hurry to. She was also allowing Dagonet time to catch up and he did in only a few more steps. They crossed the clearing wordlessly, but at the opposite side as they reentered the woods, Dagonet once more took her hand in his, and she was grateful. Even if he did not love her, she decided, he_ did_ care. Silently they continued just as they had come, though Rhiannon could see that Dagonet was tiring. His feet were becoming just the tiniest bit unsure, and finally, she insisted that she was so worn that she needed to rest. They were not far from the fortress, but Dagonet's face was still faintly washed out. The day had taken it's toll, but she could see by the knowing look on his face, that he understood why she had wanted to rest. She only smiled, and stared with feigned interest at the twigs, and leaves beneath her boots. "When will you be well enough for the wedding?" Rhiannon asked, still not looking up, and trying to sound nonchalant without success.

"You are the healer in whose care I have been left. I await your decision about what I am well enough for, especially weddings." Dagonet's eyes sparkled, as his tone teased. Without warning, he grew immediately serious as a thought occurred to him. "Rhiannon, you said that your beliefs are a mixture of Pagan and Christian... what then are _your_ beliefs about weddings?"

Rhiannon looked up quickly and smiled. How she loved to hear him say her name! It never failed to sound lovely when it passed his lips. She considered his question for a moment, his eyes on her all the while as he relaxed against a tree_. 'Must he always be so distracting?'_ She wondered helplessly.

"I believe that no matter whether there is a Christian ceremony or a forest opening in which a marriage is consecrated, there can be no true marriage without love." She answered truly and with what she hoped was a face that betrayed nothing. She sounded like an idealistic child, but she held fast to the faith that true love could exist. It had for her parents and she had grown up seeing that love between them until they died. It was a dream she coveted for herself.

Dagonet considered her words carefully. She was assuredly a romantic little thing. There weren't many who entertained such illusions about joining of two together. How could it be that she watched people so carefully, and had not noticed that most people did not live up to the standards she seemed to insist upon? A sudden thought came to him that maybe Rhiannon was not as sheltered as he had supposed, but rather was an idealist, and that many of her ideals where carefully guarded moral posts for herself. She was far too intelligent to be blind to the way of life so many others around her lived. He himself shared the idea of loving someone he had married. He smiled at his mistake that she was childish. Her mind was too cunning and sharp for silliness or outright blindness else she would never have survived in Britain this long. It was an epiphany that startled him a little. As his thoughts continued on, a question that surfaced startled him even more. Something she had said about marriage...

" Would this be a true marriage between us then?" Dagonet asked the question against his better judgement. His chest had tightened painfully and he felt somewhat sick to his stomach, yet he never moved. He simply waited.

Rhiannon tensed, and her breath quickened at his question. She was thinking quickly to come up with a reply and somehow managed to look calm though her heart felt like it might come right through her. She considered that Dagonet seemed to have that effect on her whether it was excitement, or currently, excited fear. He was waiting and she could see apprehension in his eyes but only vaguely. Apart from that he looked nonchalant and constantly distracting braced against the giant tree he rested on. She did the best thing she could and resorted to putting the burden for answer on the man before her. She acknowledged mentally the coward that she was fast finding herself to be. " I have been wondering about the state of our marriage as well."

It was a sentence, yet Dagonet clearly caught the question in her bold stare. Her eyes wondered what he might say, and while she seemed calm enough, her breath was shallow. It made him think of times he had seen her breath come in that sweet, short way. He wished he had not thought of that. He looked away from her finally and found himself resorting to one of her tactics. He stared at the leaves, twigs, and the toes of his boots. What could he possibly say in answer? He wasn't ready to tell her that he loved her, and it occurred to him that he also was not sure that he was prepared to hear her say that she loved him, yet he _needed_ to know. It was eating him up. Things were moving quickly, and he marveled that despite his best efforts he couldn't make it slow down even the tiniest bit. Dagonet did the only thing that he could think to do until he could clear his head for a final answer.

"I cannot answer you right now. Can you wait for an answer to your question?"

"I can." Rhiannon answered gravely, her eyebrows drawn slightly closer together, lips pressed slightly tighter than usual. It wasn't the worst thing that she had been bracing for. Given his length of silence she had been prepared for a denial of his love for her. It never dawned on her that she herself had evaded the question , but in a less honest way. Dagonet had not forgotten however.

" What is_ your _answer to what you ask? Will you love me as truly as the love you are asking me for?"

'_Damn.'_ She thought mentally stamping a foot. She couldn't help the smile that broke through. It was an annoying nervous habit, as was laughing fits on occasion. She crushed the smile as quickly as she could under his scrutiny. He had raised his eyebrows wondering what could possibly be humorous to her in the current situation they found themselves in. She would have to explain that to him soon she decided. She might have in that moment had she but realized that the stalwart warrior, competent healer, and virile man before her was deeply insecure about women. He was in fact wondering slightly if he was being laughed at, and growing more unstable all the time with the idea of her. She took a breath, and evened out her expression. "When you give me your answer, I will give you mine."

Dagonet nodded at her, and decided something then and there. He would know her true feelings and soon. He couldn't go on wondering, and worrying. She cared and she had certainly admitted to that, but now he had a driving need to hear her say whether she loved him or not, and he intended to get it out of her one way or another. He might have admitted to himself that he knew she loved him. He had seen it in her eyes, as well as so many of her actions. He had felt in the way that she had touched him. She was a little clumsy at loving but not terribly because she had an instinct and enthusiasm that was startling to him. He knew that he had been the first man to even kiss her as deeply as he had. She had been hesitant and tentative, uncoordinated even when he first deepened a kiss between them. She really did learn quickly he had to admit. In the end, he would not risk being wed to a woman who might become disillusioned with him, or one who might even cuckold him. He hated himself for his last thought of her. Still, women did it all the time. He would have to marry her and that was a fact, and not at all a bad one on the surface. His heart was vulnerable, and he felt that too much depended on her. He hardly knew her, and she had never come right out and told him the depths of her feelings. Again his thoughts reminded him that she could shatter him with hardly any effort. It was the possibility of betrayal that hooked into him, and made him use the inevitability of marriage as a pressure point. He made his final decision.

"We will be wed tomorrow if there are no objections from you. I believe that we have waited long enough, and I am sure that the Romans will be relieved to go home."

**_I know it's been awhile but please R&R. I am trying to reply to all of the e-mail's but if I miss someone's please don't think I did it on purpose. It is an accident I promise. I thank everyone who has read this, and to those who will review, and those who have reviewed other chapters. It means a lot to get your feedback on this, and I hope that this chapter doesn't disappoint._** **_Stress will do crazy things to even predictable characters, but I am trying to make them human, and keep them that way. Thanks again everyone. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the support with this. Carrie_**


	9. Chapter 9

A brief note...when I upload, my stories never hold onto the dividers I set in them to seperate sections of the stort. Therefore, I have made the first word of each new section bold to set it apart.

**Chapter 9**

"**Loves Madness"**

**Rhiannon** stood gaping at him. "Tomorrow?" She sputtered.

Dagonet wanted to laugh, but held it in check. "Yes, why not? We are to be wed anyway, and can you think of any reason why we should not tomorrow?"

Rhiannon cast around in a panic. She was stunned by the suddenness of this move. "Are you sure you are quite well? You can't ride a horse yet, and..."

Dagonet smiled warmly, and indulgently at her as he cut her off. " You will admit though that I was well enough to spend a day with you in these woods. And as far as me not being able to ride a horse, that will hardly stop me riding anything else that I take a mind to."

Rhiannon could only stare in disbelief. His words, his actions...they didn't make sense, and she wondered if somehow, somewhere along the way she hadn't missed something. He had been deliberately coarse with her, but his tone held a hint of teasing.

"I, um... well..." Rhiannon was red to the tips of her ears. She couldn't stop stammering.

" Do you not wish to be wed to me after all then?" Dagonet asked conversationally as he advanced on her. Rhiannon had an impulse to back up from him, but knew she would only find herself against a tree, so she helplessly held her ground. She might have remained nerveless but for the open challenge he was issuing. It shone clearly in his eyes. That brought her pride back in an instant, and she dug in. Dagonet was now so close to her body that a simple leaning forward would have had her pressed against him. She met his eyes and refused to look away, nor did she lean despite the temptation. The remembrance of his firmly muscled chest caused her to groan inwardly.

"I will marry you, as I have said that I would. If you wish it tomorrow, then so be it my Lord Knight. I will be ready."

" You are certain that you do not wish to go plead with your Uncle to free you of this and take pity on you?" Dagonet's voice was deceptively soft, the husky, tantalizing sound - so like a purr - at odds with his sharp, probing eyes. Aggravation began to swirl through Rhiannon.

" I most certainly do not, and I have not the faintest idea as to why you would think that I would wish such a thing. I have opened myself to you and you know my feelings for you."

"But I don't. You have failed to tell me how you _do_ feel about me.", Dagonet argued, still in a pleasantly nonchalant tone. He knew he was pushing her, plainly irritating her, perhaps even hurting her, but he had to know the truth behind her emotions. It was all too likely that she had become overly invested in him while she had cared for him. That would explain her reluctance in saying whether or not she loved him. Women seemed to do it all the time, so he didn't see why it would be difficult for her. They were, after all, the softer sex. Such open sentiment was to be expected. Additionally, he had spent too much of his life longing for what seemed impossible for him. He had imagined that he would die alone one day. Not only imagined, but had known it in his soul. Love and companionship had always been so elusive. He had hated Bors at times for the life he had with Vanora and all the healthy children that he had fathered. He had been utterly alone for so much of his life. Then all of a sudden there was this peculiar woman, existing in all parts of his life, even in his dreams. He had taken it upon himself to bargain with her Uncle, if it could ever be called that, and he would honor his word no matter, but he had to know what he was getting into. Rhiannon was so unexpected after he had spent so much time trying to rid himself of any feelings at all concerning the love he suffered never to have. Rhiannon's words as he had held her close in the forest had been the sweetest of his life and it had left him feeling bare, knotted inside, and maddened to have her love. He wanted her need for him to be gut wrenching and constant, as his need for her was growing to be. Dagonet felt sick with it even now. The urgency to know her heart had leapt out of control sometime in the last hours, and would not be stemmed. It was all so hard to absorb, just as it had been last night. He had risen this morning wondering if his memories of the previous night were not just another dream. She was, in his estimation, too good to be true. Far too good, and perhaps even, too good of a fit.

"Why are you doing this?" Rhiannon asked, her voice and face calculating. The change in him was too sudden and she was sure that there had to be something to have caused this.

" I have a wish to know what I am getting." He wondered why he could not make his mouth shut. He begged himself to stop. This was not going to further the cause of calming the storm between them.

Rhiannon continued her even gaze. "What do you mean?"

"Though I _must_ wed you, I would know what is here." He answered, eyes kindling, as he laid his fingers briefly on the swell of her left breast, feeling her pounding heart despite her calm face.

Rhiannon never moved her eyes from his and never flinched under his scorching gaze, though she had from his touch. " That is what this is about." She nodded and smiled humorlessly. "You would not give me an answer when I asked you your heart either. It is convenient for you to forget that. I thought we had an agreement about that anyway?"

Dagonet admitted to himself that she had cornered him neatly with that, but he refused to give in. He chose another tack. "Why would you be so _willing_ to wed a man you hardly know?"

Rhiannon's eyes lit up as heatedly as Dagonet's at his question. "It is hardly unusual for arranged marriages to take place between those who hardly know each other, or indeed, those who know each other not at all. Aside from that, you mock me. You held me as I told you all of the things that were in my heart. The pain I had suffered because _you_ suffered. I told you that I wanted to be wed to you. I _am_ devoted to you. I am bound to you now no matter what should happen between us. I do feel a fool that my feelings for you have grown to such a measure in so short of a time, but I care for you nonetheless. I cannot deny that in the least way."

Dagonet admired the haughty tilt of her head as she spoke, the cool expression on her face that was contrasted by her emotions running wildly through her eyes. The fire in her voice, even with the aloof tone that she had used, pleased him in some odd way. She had a way about her that was both vulnerable and proud. He knew perfectly well that he was being selfish, yet he would not give in. He was driven. The thought that he had been gentle all of his life when he could afford to be, seemed far off and laughable when she looked at him in that particular accusing way she had. Part of him wondered why he really found this confrontation so necessary. She had proven herself to him completely, she had given him her affection, had even offered her untried body to him. She had promised him an answer as soon as he could give one to her. It was unfair. He couldn't seem to stop himself though. He kept thinking that it was all too good, too perfect for him. He had known in the deepest part of his heart that he would die in this wild land, had prepared himself for it for a long time. His day had come on the ice, yet he breathed. _'Why in hell would she want me!" _His mind demanded loudly. _' Why me!'_

" Only me? Why not Gawain, or Galahad? You seem to like Gawain, more particularly." Dagonet's voice and eyes were full of his doubt. He knew that she and Gawain shared a certain camaraderie, and that the blonde knight was somewhat taken with her. The idea filled him with sudden ire.

Tears of anger and hurt pride stung her eyes with force. Rhiannon might have struck him in that moment, she was so filled with hurt and disgust with him. Part of her was still unbelieving, uncomprehending that he would even suggest such a thing. She had all but professed that she loved him. The only thing left was simply to _say it. _However, once she said those words, she could never erase them. It would leave her too vulnerable if his feelings were any less. She had seen women crushed by the men they loved. Marius' wife had been among those unfortunates. Dagonet was certainly not Marius, yet her reasoning would not let her rely on her heart alone. She had done too many foolish things because of a lack of good judgement in her life. She could not deny though, that this was a man that took her breath away constantly. He was _everything_ to her_. 'How can that even be possible?_', she cried out in her mind. What a monstrous moron she felt for revealing herself to him as she had. A raw scream of frustration was building in her chest. The wounded part of her wanted to roar out the worry and pain she had borne so long, as an animal would have. What stopped her from breaking down completely was the interruption of a hugely unwelcome voice cutting sharply into her ears.

"See, there they are, and looking as though they are about to begin again in the debauchery I caught them at!"

Dagonet and Rhiannon both snapped their heads toward the sound of an ugly voice, issuing from an equally ugly woman. Aria's face was contorted as she pointed accusingly at them. Arthur, Gawain, and Murrelus were with her.

" You see Senator Volumnius! It is as I described. They cannot possibly deny it." Aria crowed hoarsely. Her dark eyebrows were drawn down, as her brow furrowed deeply. She radiated with enjoyed malice.

Rhiannon looked to Arthur and saw him ignoring the woman pointedly, and looking to her and Dagonet instead. Gawain was watching all of them in turns, his horse flanking the others. Rhiannon wondered how in the world they had managed to come upon them with horses without either of them hearing. Only Aria was on foot. How had they come upon them so closely, so silently, and not been realized?

Dagonet was trying to figure that out as well. He hadn't realized how focused he had been on the now baffled looking healer. It did not weigh well with him that his senses seemed to be lacking in their usual sharpness. He locked eyes with the Senator who was staring at him with an unreadable expression. Arthur was the first to speak. Dagonet did not look away from Volumnius.

" Aria came to the Senator's chambers to inform him that she found you together in the woods. He in turn came to me, and insisted that we should find you."

Murrelus picked up there. " If what this creature says is true, then we have some things to discuss. If you are up to tupping on the forest floor with my niece, I suspect you could do it equally well in a bed. A _wedding_ bed I think. I must insist that the ceremony be performed quickly now. If there should be a child from this, then at least it will be born into wedlock a reasonable amount of time afterward. That is assuming that there was any truth to you two not having been lovers before." He was needling his niece with the last part of his speech. He would not risk work reaching Rome of this affair if he could. It might jeopardize his lovely Daphne. He should not have left her, but he was so worried that his plan of deliberately keeping Rhiannon from Rome would be apparent if he took his wife on such a journey. He was growing older, and losing some influence to younger and richer Senators. The one who most threatened was Tiberian, the poisonous bastard who had nearly raped Rhiannon years before, but for interruption. He remembered the fear he had held for the child after her parents were both gone. Tiberian had not been in the Senate, though his father had been, and it had then been easy to exile Rhiannon far enough away, that he felt she was safe. He had surmised that even in a hard exile, she had a better chance of survival than she would have had with that evil pup. Tiberian coveted her, and Volumnius was relieved that he had kept his niece out of his grasp. When the option of sending her to Britain came in a reasonable guise, it had seemed brilliant. Then, as fate would twist itself, Tiberian took his fathers seat of influence, and insisted that Murrelus bring Rhiannon to him to wed. Murrelus knew that Tiberian wanted her solely to punish her and humiliate her, probably to kill her in an agonizing fashion. Awful poisons seemed to be a favorite game of his that he played with prisoners. They were brought to his dinner parties and he delighted in their agonies publicly whilst he feasted. It was said that he had killed men and women in this way, even using them to ease his sexual appetite as they thrashed in the final throes of death. As her only guardian left, he could not let him have her. He only prayed that this move would not cost him Daphne or his own life. The boy was vicious and baneful. He wore his crimes, and aberrations as jewels. News of his plan, though not even close to his most cunning work, could not spread. He hoped his ideas were not as transparent as he feared, but he hadn't had a lot of time to think about the situation. Dagonet was truly a blessing. The Knight has spared him having to murder the child, who while beyond aggravating, and peculiar to him, was_ still_ his brothers child. He thought it perfectly natural that an intended couple behave as they were. He had once. It was however, another situation for him to manipulate. Amazingly Rhiannon didn't look angry, but was instead laughing quietly and shaking her head at the ground. He had no idea why she might laugh when only a moment before she had obviously been squared off with the big Knight. She had looked close to murdering him, anyone could have seen that.

Rhiannon just laughed harder. She really could not help herself. Her nerves had grown so taut that she felt she might snap any moment. She looked up at her uncle who appeared just as confused as everyone else seemed to be by her soft mirth. "Uncle, while the accusations against us are _somewhat_ false, it really doesn't matter. Sir Dagonet has insisted himself that we be wed on the morrow. I have agreed, and so it shall be. Also, it will be a Pagan wedding according to his beliefs. That is the grooms right. Now if you will excuse me, I have herbs to tend to, and wedding preparations to make."

Rhiannon started to walk toward the fort, but was stopped by Aria blocking her path. Rhiannon eyed her evenly. " Shall she not be punished for this? She is disgracing you!" , The drawn up harlot declared, waving her finger at Volumnius accusingly.

Murrelus looked on the woman with complete revulsion. "This is none of your concern woman. Your part is done. Go elsewhere to brood about losing a source of coin."

"There will be nothing lost I promise you." She answered more silkily than Rhiannon would have thought possible. Aria turned with a sneer to the healer in front of her. "I will congratulate him on his coming vows tonight in my bed...perhaps tomorrow after they are taken as well."

Aria never saw the punch coming. There was a quick movement from Rhiannon and then stunning pain burst from her mouth, and then again from the middle of her face as a fist slammed into her nose. Struggling and disoriented, Aria pushed herself onto her elbows and realized that she was on the ground. Warm fluid ran over her face. She dabbed her fingers in the blood that ran from her broken nose, and busted mouth. The pain was immense. She lay back in the litter of leaves and twigs, groaning, and loosely clutching her spurting nose. Rhiannon looked at her just as calmly as before, ignoring the pain in her hand. That had been far too satisfying. She felt...better.

Arthur sat on his mount before her looking somewhat amused. Gawain openly smirked, and looked impressed. Volumnius looked on his niece with the same unreadable expression that he usually wore. Turning to Dagonet, Rhiannon found his expression a curious mix of anger and amusement. She was not amused. She was tired, and worn down. She went to Dagonet, and spoke so softly that his ears alone caught her words. "Now you _know_ what you are getting. I will not share you, nor will I betray you. I wonder that you could think such things about me wanting other men and yet demand a quick marriage." Rhiannon looked thoughtful for a moment before her anger returned. "Now, kindly leave me the hell alone till the ceremony." And with that, she turned and stalked back to the fortress.

**Dagonet** had started off obeying the angry order that Rhiannon had issued, until he'd had time to think about it. Then his anger and exasperation took hold. That was what was currently propelling him with such determined strides down the corridor to the pharmacea. There were few people in the passageway as the evening was deepening, but the few who did pass him, consciously drew nearer the opposite wall and did not think to speak under the set glower he wore. His ire was palpable. He was tired and out of sorts to say the least. His nerves felt positively unraveled, and that feeling, such an unusual one for the quiet Knight, only made him worse.

He strode toward the pharmacea, not thinking to look in her chamber. Rhiannon would not be there and well he knew it. Since the day of his initial meeting with her Uncle, he had kept tabs on her through serving maids, Guinevere, and whoever else would tell him of her goings on. He couldn't seem to stop worrying and wondering over her. She bathed, and took meals in the pharmacea. He knew that the couch was put into place for her there when she could not sleep in the bedchamber provided for her. He had flattered himself with the passing fantasy that she had been unable to find sleep because she longed for him too much, but he had scoffed the happy idea away as a foolish trifle. Every step brought him nearer to wanting to wring her neck.

Reaching the sturdy door of the pharmacea, Dagonet all but crashed through it as he made his entrance. He was stopped momentarily in his tracks, surprised at the sight of all the plant matter in the room, all of the cloying aromas thick in the air. There were drying racks set up everywhere full of herbs, flowers, ferns, and barks. He knew Rhiannon had been hard at work to accomplish so much in just hours. A surge of pride for her went through him, and he looked to her. Rhiannon had spun is shock at the violence of the intrusion, and stood staring at him with wide eyes. Dagonet took in her startled eyes, her loosed curls, and her softly parted lips though it did nothing to soften him. He took long steps toward her, his gaze intense and furious. Rhiannon's breath had grown shallow in obvious apprehension of his demeanor, though she never budged. The large warrior grabbed her by the shoulders, and brought her toe to toe with him. She looked lovely in the simple woolen gown she wore. It was a shade of green that suited her beautifully, the bodice clinging temptingly over the swells of her breasts. Her eyes told him that she was afraid of this moment, her eyebrows drawn upward in apprehension. He let the suspense of the moment build as he took in his bride to be, knowing that he would die for her, indeed do anything for her. It made his heart ache, but he kept his eyes hard.

" I am not a child to be cast off from you woman. I will be your husband, and you will not treat me as some foolish boy." Dagonet gritted the words out, and saw her lips press slightly as she nodded almost imperceptibly."Are you certain that you understand me?", he growled. Rhiannon was nodding, refusing for once to look him in the eyes. It infuriated him further. "Look at me. Now." Dagonet commanded with a hard voice. Rhiannon obeyed, her face nervous and pleading.

" I will never require you to be a slave to me, but you _will_ honor me as your husband and protector. Is that understood? You will not humiliate me by turning away from me publicly. Any issue you may have with me, can and will be settled privately. Do not dishonor me."

Rhiannon had looked stricken when he had uttered the last sentence in his ultimatum.

Dagonet loosed his grip on her though neither moved apart, and Rhiannon remained perfectly still. The thought occurred to him that perhaps he had in fact really frightened her. She was rubbing her arms gingerly where his fingers had cut into her. He was sorry that she would undoubtedly be bruised from his grip. The tension stood thick between them. "You must have been hard at work since you returned from the woods.", He heard himself saying quietly. " Yes...I have." Rhiannon answered haltingly, her eyes falling to the floor. Dagonet stood enduring the silence without knowing how to effectively break it, and it was making him sorely ill at ease. He had no desire to hurt her, but he had to make her understand that she could not treat him in such a way. _' Leave her the hell alone indeed!_' He had done too much in his life to be dismissed like a whipped dog, even by someone he cared for so much. Dagonet continued to watch Rhiannon, wondering at her curious and uncharacteristic lack of fire, when a brisk knock at the door diverted him. Without waiting for a summons from Rhiannon, the old servant Elspeth led the way of six young male servants with a large, sloshing tub of water that they were all but bent under the weight of. Elspeth ignored Dagonet, looking instead at Rhiannon who was now finding the stones of the floor incalculably interesting. " I bade them fill the tub in the kitchen before bringing it up to insure that it would be warm enough for you. I certainly wouldn't wish to do anything to displease you, what with the great and powerful Senator in our midst." The old crone sneered all of her words hatefully. Rhiannon looked at her then, merely rolling her eyes, and waving her hand in dismissal. Elspeth all but stomped from the room, the six men following dismally behind, only slightly interested in the sight of Rhiannon so intimately near the respected Knight. All of them looked pained from their exertions, at least two that Rhiannon took note of, were rubbing their lower backs. She mentally cursed the old woman's increasing hostility toward her.

" Is she always like that with you?", Dagonet inquired softly.

" It seems to be getting a bit worse, but yes.", Rhiannon answered with a small smile, looking at him at last. " I have dealt with worse." She added reassuringly, the wry smile curving her mouth even more, though it did not reassure Dagonet at all. It only brought the urge to protect her from such foolishness to the fore. Dagonet saw her staring fixedly at the tub of steaming water that now sat near her couch in a puddle. She looked as though she were a million miles away, and he wondered what she might be thinking of, but he brushed it aside.

"I have come with news." He announced simply and waited for her acknowledgment that was quick coming. Her eyes were on his with anticipation.

"Tomorrow, we will remain here the night after the wedding, but after that, we will remove ourselves to an old weavers cottage that Arthur has overseen the necessary repairs of at my request. I was hardly in the shape to see to it myself at the time that I asked him. I want some time for us to be alone and there we will be granted that time along with the protection and proximity of the fort. There are too many things wrong between us and I am tired of interferences." To his surprise she smiled in delight. "Really?" Rhiannon asked the question with so much enthusiasm that in her excitement, she looked like a child suddenly. Dagonet only grinned at her in return, pleased deeply with the reception of this idea. His anger began to fade. Seeing all the work in her pharmacea, he had expected a sound refusal that he would be forced to deal with accordingly. He had envisioned himself carrying her out of the fort by force, like a sack of grain over his shoulder, and he had been somewhat amused by the idea. This however was admittedly better and relieved him. He felt a measure of tension slide away. He noticed with relief that most of the strain between him and the lovely woman in front of him had slipped away as well. The problem that remained was that he wanted sorely to be angry with her, and that brought his frustration back afresh. He wanted to make her ill at ease for awhile...unsure of herself with him. An idea suddenly struck him. Walking leisurely toward her couch he sat down and began the process of unlacing his boots, deliberately not looking at Rhiannon.

"What are you doing?" Rhiannon asked with a curiosity laden voice. Dagonet looked up to see her coming toward him, a half smile on her small lips.

"Did you not intend to bathe?" Dagonet asked nonchalantly, as he went on to another boot, ducking his face to hide the smile that would not stay behind his mouth.

"I did." Rhiannon answered warily.

"Well, I don't suppose it would do for _me_ to smell like a horse on my wedding day would it?" Dagonet asked as if it were the most common sense thing he could say. He could not look at her without laughing and so he kept busy with his head down, until he felt that he could mask his amusement from her.

"Would you like me to leave?", The befuddled healer asked as she stood at the cold fireplace watching Dagonet's bent figure. _'How long can it possibly take to unlace those boots?' _She pondered. Just then, Dagonet pulled both of them off, and straightened. "Why would I want you to leave? Now undress before the water grows cold. After all the trouble Elspeth went to for you, it would be a shame.", he teased.

Rhiannon cocked her head and stared at him, lips parted in surprise. Dagonet stared back, raising his eyebrows in question. It took everything he had in him to keep a straight face as her composure was so obviously crumbling. He stood and grasped the edge of the simple shirt he wore, easily pulling it over his head, and tossed it just as easily onto her couch without looking behind him. He kept looking at her as if she were a simpleton, and waited. She read his expression plainly, and it baffled her. She reasoned that he had seen her naked, practically. Despite her desire, she lingered. With an impatient air, Dagonet finally began undoing the lacings of his pants. Rhiannon eyed him with a mixture of hunger and alarm before reigning herself in. His chest and shoulders were broad and heavily muscled, and her hands itched to touch him everywhere. She wanted the opportunity to touch all the scars on him again, as she had when she had cared for him. The recalled taste of his heated tongue in her mouth, sent a tremor through her pelvis. She took a breath to still herself. She considered the intimacies that they had shared, and acknowledged that he would see her unclothed on the morrow anyway. What did it matter that there was not a physical introduction to this? Surely she would be expected to disrobe before him without caresses each time... Those thoughts did not reason away her nervousness, nor did it ease it. She watched as Dagonet pushed his pants around his ankles and sat back on the couch to pull them free of his feet. His thickly muscled legs, thighs and buttocks were beautiful, but what made her mouth go dry was the erect penis that presented itself. The picture that he made was so different than the one when he had been unconscious and in her care. This was a vital man with a very obvious agenda concerning her and her tub of water.

Dagonet stood and once again fixed his attention on her. He looked on her in silence for a moment and then began moving toward her slowly. When he reached her, he gazed down into the upturned face that looked so dismayed.

"You were hardly so shy in our earlier...experiences." He pointed out, as he stroked a stray curl over her shoulder. His voice was stern, giving nothing away. 'You seemed, in fact, eager. Was I mistaken?"

"I don't know what is the matter with me. You are right of course, I...I just don't know." Rhiannon sighed deeply with frustration.

"I know what the problem is.", Dagonet answered, his voice soft, with a hint of taunting. "The problem is that you are inexperienced in these matters, just as I am inexperienced in dealing with women's emotions. I hope that tonight you will learn a lesson about dismissing me. I am a peaceful man when I am allowed to be, but make no mistake, I am a man. I have faced too many trials, lived through so much death, and will not,_ will not_, be brushed aside. Right or wrong, you will not treat me in such a way. Do you understand?"

Rhiannon nodded slowly, whiskey eyes wide and wary. His eyes were a mixture of so many feelings, and she was a little troubled, a little more in love for what was in them. There was such warmth and depth as he spoke, though he was keeping his eyes hard, guarded from her. That stung her deeply. When they had last spoken in the woods, she had considered only her own feelings when he had pressed her. She had not considered his at all, and now she was struck with the knowledge that he was perhaps as worried as she about being at someone else's mercy for the sake of emotions. Her own eyes widened at the thought that she had in fact been right in considering that he might be insecure and a look of pure revelation came over her. Dagonet gave her a quizzical look when he saw the surprise come over her face, but did not ask. He knew that she had read his curiosity already, and was about to answer him. It was a source of satisfaction to him that they were growing to understand each other, at least in this way, so well. It also satisfied him that she really did not take pains to hide much from him, but that feeling was short lived as he recollected her reticence in the forest. _'Could she not see how important that it was for her to answer me?_' Once more, he blocked out the irritating thoughts that said he was being unfair in exactly the same way that he reckoned her to be.

Rhiannon saw Dagonet's eyes grow ever more steely against her again. She was confused by his sudden withdrawal when he had seemed to be calming down. Instantly, she reached upward and caressed one rough cheek, stroking the corner of his mouth with her thumb. Total awareness finally flooded through her of his nudity, and the level of intimacy already between them. She wished more than anything that she could press her naked breasts into him. The coarse patch of rough hairs on his chest caused her nipples to harden at the thought of nestling them against him.

Dagonet had caught his breath when she touched him. He had wanted to smile, hurt as he continued to be, when the expression she wore changed from worry to worried lust. He began to wish that the sexual tension between them didn't exist, or at least would lessen itself. It was too difficult, it seemed, to move beyond it to other issues, and it was forever clouding both of their judgement. This time it was his doing and he knew it, but brushed it off. He had wanted, once more, to use her naivety against her to make her pay for how she had hurt him. Now, he just wanted to beat his fists into the stone walls. Maybe if he just bedded her till both of them got the need for it out of their systems, they could at last deal with other issues. The problem with that was that he had given his word to the Senator that she was still a virgin and that it could be easily proved on the morrow. Still, there were ways around it...A discreet cut from somewhere on his body would provide more than enough blood to provide the necessary proof...That was probably what the Roman was imagining the source of her virgins blood would be anyway. It had been done by many others in the past whose brides weren't quite as pure as might be dictated; it was brilliant in Dagonet's current estimation, and completely dishonorable. He had no love lost on Volumnius, but Dagonet was a man to stand by his word as closely as he could, and he had given his word to the Senator. He gazed at the bewitching woman stroking his face, gazing into him as though she could read his thoughts, and he hugged her to him so hard and swiftly that the air left her in a soft '_whoosh_.' It was all he could do to keep himself from dragging her to the cold floor.

Temptation had taken a near painful hold on him, and Rhiannon felt his penis, hard against her belly. "Undress.", Dagonet murmured against her neck as he dipped his head to press kisses against her throat. They were brief but heated, and Rhiannon shivered each time his lips touched her. Stepping back with a great breath, Dagonet waited for her to obey. As she lowered her head and clumsily began undoing the clasps on the sides of her gown, Dagonet stepped away. She looked up just in time to see him stepping into the tub. He presented such a picture of beauty, and her hands trembled even more as she watched him settling himself in the steaming water. She never would figure out how her fumbling fingers managed to get her gown off, and she would never recall completely taking her shift off. Blood pounded in her ears, and felt as though it were boiling in her veins. The next thing she would clearly know was that she was walking toward Dagonet, wanting his nearness, but more nervous than she could remember ever having been in her life. She wondered as she approached, what she looked like through his wandering eyes, and she said a brief prayer to some unaddressed deity, for a purpose that she really wasn't sure of.

Dagonet stared in frank approval as she approached. The full picture of her nudity was what he had imagined it would be, but this was so much more potent than the vision. This flesh and blood woman was looking at him as though he were the only man in the world. He felt longing come over him once more for her to truly care for him, to love him as she would love no other, and his heart continued to hurt. He tried to push all that away, caring only that he not miss a detail of her.

Rhiannon's hair was a cloud of the uncombed curls he loved so much, a few stray locks curling over her plump breasts that swayed softly as she walked. Her nipples had puckered in the cool air, her belly was nearly flat until it reached the swell of her abdomen he had admired earlier. The nest of brown-gold curls between her thighs made him long to stroke them again, and he recalled the sweetness of her as she came to pleasure with him in this very room only the night before. Her arms were toned, but not masculine, her legs the same. Her legs began with the full, almost heavy hips he recalled so well, and tapered to thick ankles and wide feet with very round toes. Her feet was what made him nearly break the spell by laughing, and it was fortunate that he kept his delight to himself. That would have been just the thing to send Rhiannon scuttling back into her clothes and away from him in mortification. He admired that she was not petite, and was pleased that she could be so strong of frame and feminine all at once. The only thing he could find fault with was that she was not a bit taller.

Reaching the side of the tub, Rhiannon faced him with a little bit of doubt as to how she was meant to get in the bath with him. It was a large tub, but he took up so much of it. "Like this..." , Dagonet said as he grasped the arm farthest from him, and twirled her backward into the water. With a great splash, Rhiannon fell backward against the great Knight, and thrashed a bit trying to get her new bearings. She didn't have time to slosh around long however, as two great arms encircled her middle, and her back was drawn tightly against Dagonet's chest. The heated water was something of a pleasant shock to her cooled skin, and she took a moment to let all of those pleasant sensations wash over her, and to realize new ones. She was now nestled snugly between Dagonet's bent legs. He was still hard, and his erection pressed strongly against her tail bone and upwards. She wiggled the tiniest bit against him to adjust herself, and heard him groan with pleasure. That sound, so deep and sensuous, had caused her to contract deeply within and she knew that she was growing ever more wet for him.

Two great hands came upward and cupped her breasts. A moan that echoed Dagonet's came unbidden from somewhere in her throat as Rhiannon laid her head backward and dropped it to one side. Dagonet took advantage of the moment to drop his lips once more against her neck. He began with soft kisses, wetting his lips often, and stopping just as often to blow warm breathe over her. She shivered against him, and he smiled as he kneaded her breasts, pinching her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. "I had meant to bathe you my love, but it seems that the soaps have been forgotten in all the thoroughfare concerning your bath water." Rhiannon made some dismissive sound, and Dagonet lowered his lips to her once more, but rather than kisses, he began to suckle gently on her ear lobe. He grew harder as her shoulders pressed with strength into his chest, and she gasped with pleasure. Chill bumps were visible on her arms. Dagonet wanted so much to touch the heated flesh between her legs, and slide his fingers into her, but his promise came back to him, if in fact it had ever gone away. He would have to be very careful to keep control of them both.

"Rhiannon...", Dagonet whispered fiercely, just as the door to the pharmacea came flying open.

"Here is your soap, and linens my fine lady. I hope the water hasn't grown cold while you waited for them..." Elspeth had come through the door hateful and blustering, but her words died at the sight before her. Rhiannon had straightened in alarm when the heavy door had been thrown open, and her body remained stiff. If Dagonet hadn't been so angry, he would have again been reminded how much he adored her pride. He wrapped his broad arms around Rhiannon to hide her bare breasts.

"Damn, and blast you old fishwife. From now on you will knock before you enter into any chamber belonging to my wife or myself. Is that understood?" Dagonet looked so dangerous at that moment that Elspeth had honest fear for herself. He was shaking from choler and need combined.

"I apologize Sir." The old woman crooned, trying to rectify the damage she had done. "It is just that the lady is so ill tempered with all who serve her, and I am so old Sir. One as old as I hardly feels up to dealing with..."

Dagonet's icy stare told Elspeth that she was not diffusing the situation at all. "Your insults will not be borne either. You will cease or I can make it so that your life will be just as miserable as an ancient scold like you deserves."

"Sir you do not truly know her." Elspeth protested taken aback. This was not the self contained Knight that she had served for years. "She is not yet your wife, so you cannot know her true nature. She is a Roman, Sir."

"I am running out of decent names to call you. Rhiannon _is_ my wife. You will treat her as such...My threats are not idle." Rhiannon relished Dagonet's arms tightening about her, though the feeling of being talked over as though she were not even in the room did not please her at all. Still, she could see no way around it. Dagonet took it upon himself to have this conversation with the old servant. Rhiannon could not remember anyone ever defending her before.

"Sir, you saw what she did to my beloved niece! You yourself seemed to care for my poor dear!"

"You would do well to leave now." Dagonet growled impatiently. "You will recall, when consequences for this has been dealt to you, that you are the cause for them."

Elspeth nodded dumbly, knowing her stupidity in not prudently keeping silent. She hurriedly escaped the room, dread growing in her. Dagonet had a reputation of kindness, and she had never heard him speak crossly to anyone that had served him. How she hated the evil influence of the Romans.

**"Her** niece?" Rhiannon questioned.

"Aria." Was the simple answer.

"Well then, that explains a lot." Rhiannon answered drily, as she relaxed into Dagonet's chest. His arms slipped once more around her waist, and she could feel him relaxing by degrees till they reclined together. The heat radiating from his chest amazed her with it's intensity.

"I should have bade her start a fire while she was here." ,Dagonet said lazily, and with a trace of humor.

Rhiannon had meant to hold her tongue awhile longer, but found herself blurting, "You said that I am your wife."

"Yes."

Rhiannon tried to turn to look at him, and he knew what she wanted to ask, so he saved her the trouble.

"You are mine. I do not require a Roman ceremony to make that so, though there must be one to appease Volumnius. I told you this already. I will not tolerate you being mistreated. Also, there isn't a man in this world that could take you from me now or ever. If any man were foolish enough to try such a thing as fighting me for you, he would definitely lose." Dagonet closed his eyes while he spoke, letting the pleasures of the heated water Rhiannon had savored earlier, come over him. He could feel her staring at him, and he opened his eyes at length to find that she looked, what could only be described as, bewildered. "Why do you look so confused? You are willing to fight over me." ,Dagonet pointed out, grasping her swollen right hand gently and raising it for inspection. Her knuckles had been cut by Aria's teeth when she had hit her in the mouth, and the entire hand looked painful. "You did clean this didn't you?"

"I did."

"You should not have hit her in the mouth. This may become infected.", Dagonet stated sternly.

Rhiannon turned a bit so that she could look straight into Dagonet's face. "Perhaps now she will think before she opens her mouth again, particularly about you. What would you have had me do?"

Dagonet couldn't stop his lips from meeting hers with a definite smile, and a chest swollen with pride. Rhiannon was all willingness, grasping his hands to draw them back to her breasts. She thought Dagonet might crush her with the sudden tension she sensed in him. It was a weight that came down upon her, and she drew back to look into his glazed eyes. His fingers rubbed gently, and near absently over her skin as he stared with starvation at her lust brightened eyes. "Dagonet...", Rhiannon breathed, "Now, please, now. Why wait any longer?"

Dagonet didn't think he had ever felt so trapped, especially by his own attempts at integrity, or his attempts at retribution. He dropped his hands over to the upper swells of her hips and let his head drop backward as he closed his eyes with a groan of unwillingness. "I gave my word."

"To whom?" Rhiannon's stomach felt like it had clenched into a tight ball.

"The Senator.", Dagonet answered tonelessly, head still dropped back.

"He already believes that we are lovers.", Rhiannon grumbled. She couldn't believe that whining tone had just come from her mouth, when all she had wanted to do was state a simple fact.

"I know love, however, I told him otherwise when we spoke earlier. I gave my word that you would remain untouched till the wedding. The Roman wedding I mentioned a moment ago."

Rhiannon was growing desperate and angry. "What about my wants?", she asked evenly. _'He called me _love_ again..' _Dagonet finally straightened and looked at her, resolution all over his face.

"I know that your Pagan beliefs are likely to make you perhaps more liberal, but you are Roman as well. This is one of your conventions, and I did agree to it. You told me only that your beliefs are a mixture of your upbringing. Will you tell me that lying about the origin of the blood proof would not bother you?" Dagonet's deep voice was reasonable and unyielding, but she could still feel him fully erect. She thought of wiggling against him once more in an effort to persuade him otherwise, and had she known the extent of his reasoning for getting her into the tub, she certainly would have been merciless. As it was, at that moment she did not know, and so she let it go, though she was sure that she would be driven to extreme measures if on the morrow, they did not become the lovers they had been so consistently accused of being for what seemed like an impossibly long time. A sigh of acceptance escaped her and she relaxed into him again.

Dagonet felt mildly sorry for tormenting her, but the spite in her words earlier had cut him, though she had been hurt herself. He had his revenge for what good it did him. Slowly, and tenderly, Dagonet began to bathe Rhiannon with his hands. He scooped up handfuls of the heated water and poured over her, rubbing her with his hands. She began to relax, and at last lay pliable against him, and he basked in her surrender to him, her seeming trust, and the sheer feel of her. The bottom part of her hair had grown wet, and was plastered to his chest, her back, and even parts of his arms; it was a pleasure to bathe her, and acquaint himself with her even more. He wanted so much to kiss her neck again as she had once more dropped her head to the side, but resisted. He consoled himself instead with exploring the undersides of her breasts thoroughly.

"Dag?", Rhiannon murmured, almost trance-like.

"Um?" Dagonet poured a handful of water over one heavy breast, watching the water sluice over it, and droplets form on her hardened nipple.

"It is true that I have no experience with men. I know though that common sense should have told me that I should not talk to you like I did, simply on merit of being my friend..., but I was stung. I don't know what to do, or say, and I don't want to be hurt simply by revealing too much. I must sound a complete fool to you...I never meant to anger you."

Dagonet had stopped his ministrations, and sat considering for few moments before he replied. She had called him her friend and that touched and worried him simultaneously " You must say what you mean, love. That is something I require and admire in you usually. You are often so forthcoming, so why not now?"

"Because, I am so confused!", Rhiannon blurted passionately. "I feel things that make no sense to me, and I want things I have never really wanted before. I have never felt for anyone as I do for you, and...and I don't know what you want from me. I don't know how you feel and you haven't told me what you think of all of this... I know you grow angry with me because I don't say things that you want me to say...I feel like I am being eaten alive. I really am at a loss over what I am to do. I have been given no time to sort this all out."

Rhiannon had covered her face with her hands as she had finished speaking, and Dagonet once more took the time to consider all she had said. At last he spoke, just when Rhiannon had grown positive that he would not.

" I came here with the intention of punishing you for hurting and embarrassing me. I think perhaps we are both fools in this matter. I know so little about women..."

"How is that even possible?", Rhiannon asked, amazed.

"I am aware of how their bodies work, but ,until you, I had never before dealt with a woman who did not have an agenda."

A shiver passed over Rhiannon. She had not noticed the rapid cooling of the water. It would not have turned tepid so quickly had there been a fire, but the cool night was sinking it's claws into the fortress. She rose wordlessly, slowly, and began to step out of the tub. He had seduced her once more with intentions of causing discomfort, to say the least. Her thoughts were in a jumble.

Dagonet did not stop her, but rather, enjoyed the view of her full back side so close to his face and then flexing as she stepped over the tub and walked toward the linens. Grasping one, she wrapped herself quickly, and turned back to Dagonet, whom she found relaxed in the water, watching her.

"Why weren't my words in the forest enough?" Rhiannon asked without thinking. Dagonet noted the look of surprise as her eyes widened and her mouth clamped firmly shut.

"They were enough for the moment that you said them..." Dagonet had no reasonable answer to give her. Not really. He felt the paltry quality in what he had said, and felt foolish for even having spoken what he perceived as silly words.

"Why not now? Do you think that I lie to you?"

Dagonet took a moment to study Rhiannon's face, and found himself wishing that her normally expressive countenance would give something away. For the moment though, there was nothing but her steady gaze, and equally steady question. She was getting better at that. "I _think _that you have admitted not having any experience with men...I _think_ that it is very possible that you became overly attached to a_ stranger_ when you cared for me so devotedly...I think it is possible that you might eventually want another man. I do not believe that you are a spiteful woman...still, you may find in time that I am right." There. The thoughts that hurt him so terribly, spoken. He did not feel the relief that he thought he might. He throbbed horribly for want of her body, and he knew that even now she would be moist enough for him to slide into, virgin or not, angry or not. Beyond the ever present lust, there was also the fact that speaking his doubts had not freed him of them at all. If anything, the fear was now more palpable to him than ever. She looked lovely to him, the linen wrapped snugly about her body, water still beading on her arms. Some of her curls, darkened by the water, hung lankly over her shoulders. The only thing that had changed about her since he had spoken was her eyebrows. She had raised them, and nothing more.

"Did I not tell you once, that my attraction to you began when I first laid eyes on you at that horrid estate?" Rhiannon was using every bit of inward control to keep her face and voice blank. She refused to be so openly vulnerable anymore. Her body hurt her constantly it seemed, her mind hurt her constantly...she felt positively bedeviled. She was becoming ever more unhappy that he would use her desire for him as a way to punish her for slighting him.

"Yes, you did say that..." Dagonet answered reluctantly, as though he had more to say. Rhiannon wanted none of it.

"What can I do to make you believe that I want no other?" This question brought the tell tale softening to Rhiannon that showed Dagonet some true emotion.

"I really don't know."

Rhiannon walked toward the big man, his knees looking suddenly ridiculous, bent upward out of the water as they were. She recalled the first time that she had seen him...she hadn't been able to tear her eyes away. She wondered for the hundredth time if she hadn't loved him on sight. She remembered when the Knights and Arthur had returned to the rough caravan the villagers had formed after the first skirmish with the Saxons. She had been paralyzed momentarily, unbelieving that the big, beautiful man she had grown almost obsessed with watching could be dead. Rhiannon also remembered all the trials afterward...fear of hypothermia, blood poisoning, of death in any of it's forms. Dagonet had been so weak, so very, very ill. Looking back, she really thought she might have died herself had he not lived. She would have made scoffed at others who might have said the same things about the men that they loved, but not now. Not ever again.

"Big man...let me tell you something." Rhiannon knelt down by the tub and caressed Dagonet's face between her cool hands. "I will be your wife, I will never disgrace you, and you will never want for my affections. You will not bully me into telling you that I am in love with you, sweet man. When I tell you such a thing, I will do it when I am ready." She spoke with a soft smile and only kindness in her tone.

Dagonet had worn a passive expression, nearly a mask of Rhiannon's just moments before, and wordlessly began to rise from the tub. He did not look at Rhiannon, but went on to the linens to dry himself. Rhiannon watched him, standing up now, with her brow furrowed, and unconsciously ruffling her hair into quite a tangle. While she did enjoy the back view of him, his behavior bothered her. It seemed ominous.

As if she were not present, Dagonet returned to the couch by the cold fireplace, and began to stretch his legs into his breeches again. An alarm went off in Rhiannon that he meant to leave without a word, and the impulse to stop him almost made her run and beg him to stay. Pride delayed her long enough for Dagonet to get his pants laced, and his boots done up enough that they would stay on. Bare chested and without a word to her, he strode out of the pharmacea, slamming the door behind him. Rhiannon thought that her legs were going to give out under her, and she made her way slowly, and somewhat unsteadily to her soft couch. She sat in the same spot that Dagonet had just occupied, staring into space for a few seconds before a knock came at her door and jarred her attention back to the moment. "Come.", she called. A pretty female servant furtively opened the door and peered in.

"The Knight Dagonet told me that I should come and make a fire for you."

"Oh, no. I should have done it myself, and I can I assure you." Rhiannon felt idiotic facing this young woman with such a trivial thing that she really ought to have done.

"No trouble at all. Please...", and the woman came near and within seconds a fire was beginning to catch. Rhiannon watched the flames, ready to be alone, and puzzle through what had just happened when the young servant - hardly more than a girl - was speaking again.

"Sir Dagonet says that you are to stay in your pharmacea, and that he will return tonight. He also said..." A blush was creeping over the petite woman's face. "...that you are to remain garbed as you are." Aside from the oddity of the instructions, Rhiannon was momentarily distracted by the fact of a modest young servant. That was very unusual to say the least. Most uncommon.

The servant was most relieved when Rhiannon dismissed her. _'What does this all mean?'_ The healer pondered. Thinking about the issue from all angles left her nowhere, and soon the warmth of the fire and spread through her chilled limbs, the flames lulling her. It puzzled Rhiannon greatly that when bad things happened, the urge to sleep always overtook her. It didn't seem to her that it should be so. She had no way of knowing that two hours had passed while she had been deep into her thoughts, when, at last, sleep took her. Her last thought was to wonder what she had done wrong.

**First**, Dagonet had gone to see his brothers. He needed to ask some questions that would definitely determine the outcome of what he was planning for the night. He had grilled Arthur, Bors, Galahad, and Gawain, perhaps a bit more than the others, about what they could remember of Rhiannon's behavior since they had first met her. Had she been as single mindedly devoted to him as he observed her to be or had that been a sweet fantasy that he had let take hold of his lonely emotions. Could she be so sincere? He had seen what the wenches at the fort could be like...trying to manipulate themselves into the mens pockets and whatever titles they might hold. There was a large portion of the bastards at the wall who were living, breathing proof of the plots of the women to better their conditions. His doubts were getting worse by the second, and Rhiannon's reassurances weren't helping for some reason.

Gawain had been startled by the focus of so many of Dagonet's suspicious remarks toward him, until Bors had burst into raucous laughter, hollering about Dag finally getting a good dose of jealousy. Yet even he calmed himself sufficiently of his drunken mirth to agree with the other men, that she had been Dagonet's from the beginning and they knew she loved him. Galahad pointed out the many times that he had seen Rhiannon watching Dagonet from a distance, with what he referred to as a 'sickening expression of devotion imprinted on her face'. Bors spoke of respect for her, and all that she had done for Dagonet; Arthur had listened attentively, to Galahad and Bors before he spoke. "Dag, I have no doubts of her affections for you. I hope that you will be very happy with her for a wife. She is an interesting woman, and no one doubts her loyalty to you."

"Except for you." Gawain cut in, glaring at Dagonet. "You are a fool, my friend. You are a fool if you cannot see the love she has for you. If I thought for a second that I could take her from you, have no doubt that I would. I would!" , he barked at Galahad who was trying to still him. Gawain stood and took a quick sip of ale. "As it is, she does not want me. Nor any other man here, save you. I don't love her, but you do. Why do you make this so hard?" Gawain's eyes glittered in the torch lit tavern, that was unusually slow at this hour.

Bors stood and clapped a hand across Dagonet's back as he too rose from the rough bench he had been resting on. "The man is right. You think she wants him?" Bors gestured toward Gawain with a tilt of his head. "Nah. Sweet Rhiannon wants me!" Bors' loud laughter was cut short by Vanora throwing a cup at him from a few tables away, that skittered somewhere into the shadows noisily.. He gave the woman a playful, scolding look before turning his attention back to his dearest friend. Arthur was smiling at the friendly banter, while Galahad continued to watch Gawain who'd had a bit much to drink and always loved a fight.

"Why don't you go bed her. Really. You're both acting horrible." Dagonet looked at Bors and smiled a little. He couldn't help it. He knew Bors was being sincere in his advice.

"He gave his word that they would not till they were wed." Arthur reminded as he too rose. "Dag is a man of his word." Arthur sympathized with the Knight though, and agreed with Bors wholeheartedly. Surely, all this tension would end as soon as they were wed and removed from the distractions of the fort. He was amazed that Senator Volumnius had remained so detached from all of this. He wasn't interfering at all with...anything. He kept mainly to the solitude of his room.

Dagonet stood there, seemingly in deep thought. He looked at Arthur silently for a few more moments. "Take me to the Senator, Arthur."

"At this hour?"

"This minute."

Arthur nodded and without another word they walked out of the light together and were soon invisible as they headed into the darkness toward the sleeping Murrelus's chambers.

Gawain took a gulp from his flagon, draining it. "Well now. If that little drama is over, I have some of my own to take care of." And with the self-assured, jocular nature that was his personality, he headed toward a lovely whore he had spotted alone at a table. With a few whispered words, they were up and moving toward some convenient shadows, Gawain's hand firmly grasping one cheek of the woman's behind.

Galahad watched all this as he sank down onto a bench at the nearly vacant table. "Well, at least that one has most of her teeth. The last one Gawain chose didn't have a tooth left in her head."

Bors erupted once more into his startling laughter.

**Volumnius** was still awake when the heavy, insistent banging began at his door. Hurriedly he rose from his sleepless bed, worried over what this might mean. Had some catastrophe happened in Rome? Why had he left Daphne over this child that meant nothing to him? If he lost his wife because of that bothersome child, he thought he might really kill her after all. Paranoia was working hard on him these days and he despised it. Flinging the door wide, he braced himself for the worst. He found a serious Sir Dagonet staring him down, and Artorius looking curious but stern as always somewhat behind the Knight.

Arthur was the first to speak. "My Knight has asked to speak with you. We apologize for the late intrusion."

"Not at all Artorius, not at all. Both of you, come in." Murrelus stepped aside to allow entrance to them into the dimly lit room.

"What can I do for you?"

"I want to marry Rhiannon right now." Dagonet stated the words plainly.

"Now?"

"There is too much damned confusion here, interruptions, misunderstandings, and I can't stand anymore of it. I want to marry her now. You will have your precious proof of her virginity, and then after we have rested, I will take her from this place while it is still early on the morrow."

"Have you gone mad?" Murrelus could hear the anger becoming ever more apparent as Dagonet had spoken. "Artorius?" The Senator looked blankly at the commander, now King of sorts, and waited for something that sounded sane to come out of him at least.

"Senator, there have been many set backs in what should have been a period of acquaintance...I do not doubt that it is causing hardships for them both..." Arthur really had no argument. They were set to be married in the morning anyway, but he had known Dagonet long enough to know that his nerves were obviously frayed for him to be so impulsive. His unrest was visible anyway, but this whole evening with his loyal brother was proving it all the more.

"I want it done now. I will sign over your land to you, and it will all be finished. I have had enough." Dagonet's eyes were growing fierce, though a small trace of embarrassment seemed to have wormed it's way into him. He looked near sheepish to Murrelus.

"Very well then. I have no real objection with it. I will marry you myself. My title allows me to make certain declarations. Remember your agreement with me Sir Dagonet." Murrelus Volumnius warned him. "You keep her out of Rome for the rest of her life."

Dagonet nodded grimly.

"After you are wed, I understand that you intend to drag her off to a cottage in the forest? Well, in any event, God help you." Dagonet merely gave a brief, humorless smile.

**Rhiannon** jolted awake as her door banged open. Scuttling upward from where she had slumped over on the couch, she hugged the linen drying cloth to her, trying to clear the sleep from her brain, fighting to understand what was going on. She knew Dagonet and Arthur had come into the room, and then she saw her Uncle proceed after them. Dagonet came toward her before she realized and had bade her stand, while he exerted a gentle pressure on her arm. She swiped distractedly at her sleep filled eyes, and then she at last regained some sort of focus. Shame slammed over her like a wave as she realized what she was still garbed in, but no one really seemed to care. She looked to Dagonet, waiting for him to explain whatever was going on now. Had Elspeth tattled like her niece had earlier? _'Ah...that must be it.' _Rhiannon thought, everything making some sense to her finally.

"Your Uncle has agreed to wed us now." Dagonet watched as Rhiannon's face very slowly registered stunned surprise. He thought she might protest, and prove everyone wrong about her, but at length, she nodded her head. Her honey eyes, never left his dark ones, though her worry was evident. In his eyes, she looked aghast.

Rhiannon turned to look at her Uncle and Arthur who stood close together. The Senator was unreadable to her as he usually was, and Arthur looked perplexed and entertained at once. Turning her head back to Dagonet, Rhiannon tried to whisper something about how she was not attired properly. Dagonet watched a wide blush spread over her face, so lovely in his opinion, as he reminded her that she would not be in need of anything that he would only be removing from her shortly. This was not the charming blush that he had grown delightedly accustomed to. This was the one that told him he was being a jackass. He didn't care. As far as Dagonet was concerned, this was the only way that he would prevent himself from losing his mind completely. This felt as though it had been going on for years, rather than hardly over a week.

Rhiannon was numb. Exhaustion wouldn't let go even with the adrenaline trying as hard as it could to pump through her. What had happened? It really didn't seem all that clear. Dagonet had stormed out after an intimate bath, half clothed, and then was back and they were being married? She too wondered if he had gone mad. Dagonet's grip on her arm was soft, but firm as though he thought she might try to bolt. Her Uncle was speaking in lovely, fluent Latin, words that were binding her to her new husband. She watched distractedly as Arthur poured wine into an ornate chalice that a servant must have brought in while she slept. She didn't think any of the three had carried it with them when they came in, but she wasn't sure. Volumnius took the proffered vessel, and passed it carefully to Dagonet, who released Rhiannon to hold the cup of it tenderly in both of his hands. Rhiannon watched breathlessly as he held her gaze, and tilted the rim to his mouth. He never looked away from her during that binding drink, and then he was holding it toward her. Rhiannon slid her hands along the sides till she touched his, and for a moment they stood taking comfort from that moment. At last, Dagonet released his grasp, and Rhiannon brought the rim near her own lips, but paused briefly. She held Dagonet's gaze as steadily as he had hers, while her hand reached to caress the deep, fresh scar he bore near his heart. Rhiannon saw something move in his eyes at the contact that made her smile lovingly at him, then she tilted the chalice and let the sweet wine flow over her tongue at last.

_**Hi. Thanks for checking out my story, and I hope this update is to everyone's satisfaction. It took forever till it made me happy. This chapter is a bit darker than the others, I think, though nothing like it started out being. Dagonet and Rhiannon are ready for the retreat to that weavers cottage. They're stressing me out with all this emotional strain! Please R&R. Thanks to everyone for the sweet reviews.**_


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